Meant to Be
by blackxrose
Summary: Lily Evans and James Potter are meant to be, well atleast thats what all of their friends think..well, Lily certainly dosent seem to agree with them, this is the story of how Lily and James got together in their final year at Hogwarts!
1. Chapter 1: Back to Hogwarts

Disclaimer: DON'T SUE ME! Places, characters, games, etc all belong to the wonderful J.K Rowling, unless it's something you don't recognize, like OC's. 

° ­ Back to Hogwarts! - °

Lily Evans sat on the ground of her best friend Kathy Robinson's light blue bedroom, along with her other best friend Jennifer Grisdale, all of them were talking about what they were going to do once they were back at Hogwarts for their 7th year, which they have been looking forward to, and not looking forward to in some ways at the same time. Lily was happy about being Head Girl, and was planning to try and make the best of her last year at Hogwarts…but she was not so happy that James Potter was Head Boy, because she knew he was going to do nothing but cause trouble. Of course, she was planning to set a good example and make a name for herself, and not let Potters big-head and irresponsibility get to her no matter what the consequences.

The girls didn't know if the idea of Seventh Year should be good or bad. First, it was the last year of studying, tests and headaches. Second, they were the oldest in the school = power. But there were so many negatives to Seventh Year too. There was a hell of a lot more studying, and a hell of a lot more responsibility to match of course. There was also the whole' changing thing'. Allow an explanation. It meant that most of the Seventh Years would start to become a little more serious, realizing the terrible things that were going on in the Wizarding World right now. But they didn't know that they would also change the way they handled things and saw them.

So many things would confuse them, such as why they suddenly cared how much they were getting on tests and how well they were going to do on their N.E.W.T's, or how their life was going ot change after Hogwarts. It was all a phase they didn't know they had to go through. But right now, the girls were putting all of that aside and trying to relax and cool down their nerves for the rest of the summer, which had so far beena relaxing one for all of them. If that's what you called it. 

For Lily, it was far from relaxing. Things were busy at her house; people running around planning Petunias dumb wedding zillions of years too early anyway. It was so pointless. She, of course, had a lot of duties relating to that. And that meant start decorating the dumb invitation card, start making the dumb list, and also start helping with errands and little details. Sometimes she just shut her self in her room and screamed away in her pillow, wishing the frustration would go away. Permanently. 

She didn't know why her sister was marrying the bull anyway. He was a mean sort of person, who would suck up to her parents, and try to be an angel, but be as sour as anything to Lily. She wouldn't even bother to call him 'brother-in-law'. She thought of him more like 'bull dog in training'. Lily wasn't jealous of Petunia at all though. Petunia had dropped out of college, just to marry Vernon and was now a mindless twat who didn't care about anything except her wedding and giving Lily evil smiles that said 'ahaha I'm getting married and you aren't you stupid freak'. Lily fought hard not to send a hex her way when she did that, of course. 

But now, she was trying to forget all of that stuff that gave her a headache and enjoy the last few days of the summer with her best friends.

Kathy sat with her back against her large light blue bed, Jen sitting next to her and Lily facing her. All of them were still in their clothes, even though it was late at night and most people would be getting ready for bed. They had some junk food around them as well as magazines and their wands to do silly things.

"Thanks for letting us stay, Kathy." Lily said and smiled after they just closed a conversation about what they wanted to do after Hogwarts. She really was thankful, because if it wasn't for that, she would have had to stay in her house and bear her sisters dreadful comments about her going to Hogwarts and how great it was going to be without her ugly and freaky face there anymore.

"Yeah!" Jen said and grinned. She was also happy since her father was getting married to another woman, which meant a step-mom, which meant all hell broke loose for Jen who would never accept someone other than her mother, being the stubborn and determined person that she is. Jen had been constantly fighting with her and the woman staying in their house, which Jen had concluded to be one of Satan's evilest demons. She didn't bother to give her a chance, because she loved her mother and her mother only. And when Jen was mad about something, she meant business. 

Kathy smiled back, "No problems, there is no need to thank me anyway. Did you think I would let the chance of us getting together for our last Hogwarts summer slip away?" she said and laughed.

Lily and Jen were staying at Kathy's house for three days, the last three glorious, important days of the summer, and then its off to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies tomorrow then they go to King's Cross station the next day and get on the train to Hogwarts for their final year at Hogwarts. All these 'last train rides' and 'last summer of Hogwarts' and 'last year at Hogwarts' were devastating Lily a lot. 

"Do you think you'll see him Lil?" Kathy grinned, her different colored eyes twinkling happily, her grin widening evilly, as if she was ready to start tormenting Lily about James. It was time for another 'Lily WILL marry James some day' conversation which lead to a screaming match sometimes, depending on the teasing level being done by Jen and Kathy. 

"See who?" Lily and Jen said in unison. Lily turned to look at Kathy when an eyebrow raised. She hoped it wasn't who she thought it was. That was just pure evil. She sighed frustratedly as Jen smirked and Kathy snickered. 

"Well .. _you know_..James!" they both said in a state-the-obvious tone as Lily glared at them both and whacked each of them with her pillow. Why oh why her God, WHY?!

Lily groaned, "I sure hope I don't!" she said and turned away huffily, trying to shut James Potters' face out of her mind. She had been thinking a lot about him lately, strangely enough. She had been wondering if he had actually changed since she last met hin, and was finding it hard to believe. But everytime she looked to his eyes, his deep, hazel eyes, she knew that somewhere in her heart, she wanted him to change. Sometimes she slapped herself for thinking such thoughts, but again a lot of the time she found herself daydreaming about him.

She had to admit that he wasn't a bad person most of the time, yet being a mean person consumed most of his personality in her eyes, no matter how much her friends attempted to tell her that it wasn't the way he really was once you got to know him. But there was one problem, she didn't want to get to know him she wanted him to get away from her. 

Jen laughed "Ooooh!" she grinned and poked and poked Lily. Jen always thought that James liked Lily, and that they would one day be Hogwarts most promising couple. Even though Lily, on the other hand, seemed to think that saying that would be being sarcastic more than needed.

Lily scowled.

Kathy pushed a strand of her chocolate brown hair out of her eyes and eyed Lily skeptically. Her hair fell to her shoulders, then the longer hair descended down to her chest. She had one blue eye and one green eye, and she was usually smiling. She had a tanned complexion and had dimples that showed up when she smiled, or when she was talking. Her heart-shaped face was usually happy, and that made people want to be around her a lot. Kathy was also a very cheerful, happy girl who was sort of sensitive, and sometimes let people push her around, which drove Jen crazy and it all resulted in Jen shooting death glares at anyone who annoyed Kathy.

"We **_know _**you want to see James, admit it Lily!" Jen said, tying her long blonde curls that almost fell to her waist into a ponytail, her dark gray eyes shining, and her naturally dark red lips curving into a smirk, her pale face turning to look at Lily. Jens hair was a shade of blonde that looked good with her pale face, and her curls were always bouncy, giving off the effect that it was almost the kind of persons he was. Jen's eyes were everchanging shades of gray, and they were small, mysterious eyes framed by long eyelashes, the most meaningful thing on Jens face was her eyes. Jen was tall, curvy and had a certain charm, almost like Sirius'. She was certainly a bit insane, and always loved a bit of trouble, being the type of person who had no intention of letting people push her or her friends around, but also had an understanding, caring side to her. Jen was very outgoing and wild, and sometimes with crazy ideas that lead to not so good things…

Lily threw her head back and laughed hysterically, like that was the most hilarious thing she had ever heard in her whole life. Lily was really pretty, with beautiful dark red hair that fell to her shoulders, it was thick and always well kept of, curling at the ends. Her hair was quite unusual, making her quite unique and a point of attention. Her hair contrasted amazingly with her ivory-ish complexion and her amazing, almond shaped emerald green eyes that usually had a bright twinkle in them and reflected when she was feeling happy. Lily was short, and petite, also very nice to look at. She had an attractive, pleasant smile and a nice attitude, with a smart and kind edge to her. No one didn't like to have the usual small chat with Lily.

"Me? Want to see James Potter?! NEVER! I'd rather have a conversation with the Giant Squid.. its already enough torture that he's Head Boy this year … and I have to put up with him because I'm Head Girl this year!" she said dryly. "Stop bugging me about him, its driving me crazy, I don't want to think about him so put a sock in it, both of you, wont you?"

Kathy laughed, "Oh, come off it Lily! Give the poor guy a break! You know he has feelings for you, no matter how stuck up and immature he may seem!" she said, raising an eyebrow at her friend seriously. She knew that more than once, Lily had thought about James, and given his feelings about her some consideration, but in the end, there was something that just might always keep Lily from James. 

Jen grinned "Just you wait ..we'll be at her wedding one of these days Kathy, can you imagine what kind of dress she'll be wearing.. oh I might even cry!" she teased, smirking as Lily banged her head against the wall next to her.

Lily looked horrified, a glare coming across her face as she thwacked her friend with the pillow again and again. "That's not even funny. It's scary. And it's never ever going to happen, not in a million years!"

Jen was too busy laughing to say anything.

Kathy sniggered, standing up and walking around her room, standing at her desk and pulling out a photo, it was James, and he had a dazed expression on his face, and he was staring at Lily "Everyone knows you and James like each other, its just that you don't seem to want to admit it! … Oh and Jen, I think we'll be at her wedding one of these days, yes we will!" she added just as Lily opened her mouth to protest and attempt to snatch the photo out of her friends hands, chasing her around the room.

Lily sniffed disapprovingly as she tackled Kathy on to the bed and attempted to snatch the picture of her screaming friends hands, "James Potter is the last person on Earth people would think I like .. Let alone MARRY you clowns! Now hand the photo over or I will tell Sean Pomroy that you love him!" she said and smirked, Sean Pomroy was the most stuck up Slytherin in the school. 

This made Kathy shut her mouth, and Jen laugh even harder as Lily successfully burned the picture and sat on Kathy's back, ignoring her protests about wanting to be able to walk for the rest of her life.

"I'll be you anything he has changed this year Lily!"

Lily frowned "He is an arrogant, bullying, toe rag who thinks its okay for him to hex people when he feels like it just because he can, and he doesn't care about people's feelings! The only person he likes, is him, and the only person he respects, is, well, him! And he doesn't care about what people think about him or wether or not he has a respectable reputation, he doesn't know shit for his own good! He probably doesn't even like me, by the way he acts, all he does is follow me around and badger me to go out with him, which will never happen!..I bet he hasn't changed one little bit, still a prat..Potter the Prat! When will you guys register that he does not like me. He has never even had a relationship longer than a week.."

Jen snorted, shaking her head and waving her hand as though to dismiss all that was just said by an outraged, and though they didn't notice, hurt Lily. She was hurt to think that James was trying so hard just to have her for a week then leave. "Well his bestfriend is hot, so I'll forgive him!" she joked, rolling her eyes. She did think Sirius was good looking, but she also thought he was a jack ass and more of a player than Jame. ".. and he _did _change!"

Lily rolled her eyes, opening a magazine and hiding her face from her friends while she pretended to read. "Sirius is too thick for his own good.. and I still don't like James, no matter what you two say anyway.." she trailed off quietly as she wondered if this year meant more James-teasing than ever.

Kathy grinned and looked up at Lily from where she was still seated on her back. "Well, I still think you like him Lily! He's really nice to you, and you're so mean to him! You haven't even given him a chance! Which is quite unfair, if you ask me." she said seriously and nodded.

Lily smiled evilly, shaking her head slightly as she thought about it. She was mean to him for reasons, not one only, "Well, he deserves it. Potter thinks he can get every girl he wants, and i'm not going to let him get me … teach him a lesson … I'm not going to be one of the girls he stays with for a week then dumps.. Not me! Never, you guys, im not going that low just so he can leave me alone…"

Kathy shrugged "I dunno Lily. I still think your being unfair and in denial.."

Jen looked at Lily and started singing, "James and Lily sitting in a tree, k-I-s-s-I-n-g, first comes love then comes marriage!" she grinned and immediately got hit with a pillow by Lily, who glared at Kathy, who was laughing so hard, she had tears coming out of her eyes.

Jen scrambled back from Lily and said, "Can we be your bridesmaids at the wedding Lils?"

Lily screamed in frustration as Kathy grinned, "Yeah .. and if you two do decide to get married .. me and Jen get 50 Galleons..each!" she said and smiled, raising an eyebrow teasingly as she pushed Lily off her.

Lily smirked "Alright then, since that's never going to happen .. your on!" she said, putting the magazine she was holding back down and wondering if her friends were still in their right minds.

Mrs.Robinson poked her head into the room and smiled "You'd better get to sleep girls, if you want to wake up in time for Diagon Alley tomorrow!"

The girls nodded and changed into their pajamas then got into bed.

[Next Morning!]

"LILY! GET UP, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME WAKE UP JEN!" Kathy's light and cheerful voice shouted with laughter as she jumped from bed to bed, singing and screaming at the top of her lungs, then throwing water on both of her friends out of an ice cold bucket, her hair flying wildly around her tanned face as she giggled and continued to hop around like an over excited rabbit, the water slipping out of the bucket. Quite a scene.

Lily yelped in surprise "ARGH!" she said and bolted right up, dripping freezing water, her dark red hair seemingly darker from the water as she rubbed her eyes and groaned, throwing her pillow at Kathy lazily and missing, as Kathy scrambled off her bed and moved to Jens bed, tipping the water over Jen.

Jen screamed and fell off her bed, tangled with the covers, then muttered under her breath as she tried to get her tangled curly hair out of her face.

Kathy laughed and prodded them both with her finger, singing again.

"Get dressed get dressed!" she said, attempting to fix her hair, which had gotten messy after doing so much jumping. She smiled and ran a brush through it several times, before it was neat and brushed back again, usual Kathy style while she tossed the brush to Jennifer, whose hair looked like a rats nest. 

"Fine, fine, alright.." Jen muttered and started to change, still fussing with her hair while Lily groaned and did the same. 

Jen started brushing her long hair on the way downstairs and Lily tied her flame-coloured hair into a high ponytail. 

"Good morning girls!" Mrs. Robinson smiled cheerfully, setting down a mug of coffee for herself on the table as the girls all seated themselves around the table for breakfast, yawning slightly and taking in the sent of delicious pancakes. 

"Morning Mrs. Robinson!" Lily said and smiled, nodding her head to politely to her best friends rather friendly mother.

"Good Morning!" Jen said, trying not to sound grumpy and sat down.

They all had breakfast quickly then went to Diagon Alley using Floo Powder.

[At Diagon Alley]

The girls walked out of Flourish and Blotts after buying the books they needed, trying not let the weight of the books weigh them down. The sun was still shining brightly, and there kids and parents of all ages bustling around getting their shopping for the school year done, the younger ones squeaking about which house they would rather be in.

"What else do we need?" Lily asked her friends, raising an eyebrow at them as she heaved her sack of books up, but not frustratedly. The feeling of all the people around her would not allow her to feel negative as she smiled softly and looked back at her friends.

"I need some quills and some ink!" Jen said, checking her list and looking back at her friends, who nodded in agreement.

"Ah, me too!" Lily said and smiled, remembering that her old quills had become pretty worn out.

"Me three!" Kathy grinned as they set off towards the store, waving to random people that they knew on their way. So far, they had seen Bellatrix Black looking obnoxious as usual, the two twins in their dorm, who they stopped to chat with for a while and some other boys in their year and in Sixth Year. 

"I hope we run into them!" Jen said enthusiastically after they walked out with quills and ink to last them the whole year, along with parachment, almost dropping some of the books she was holding and bumping into Lily, who frowned and started her rant about not wanting to see him again. The only reason Jen wanted to run in to them was because she wanted to see if James had really changed and prove Lily wrong about James. 

On the way out of the store, they ran into none other than James Potter and Sirius Black, who were holding some books and parachment. They seemed to be in a good mood, like most of the people around.

"Hello Ladies!" Sirius said and grinned, nodding his head slightly at all of them.

"Hi," James said and smiled, and Lily noticed it wasn't his usual arrogant smile, strangely enough though since that smile was nearly his trademark.

"Hi!" Kathy said cheerfully and grinned.

"Hey," Jen said and smiled slightly, putting the quills in the book sack and setting it down for a moment and glancing at James, and also noticed that his smile wasn't the same. She glanced at Lily, but couldn't catch her eye.

"Hello.." Lily said and smiled, avoiding James slightly as he stared at her.

"Hello Lily, looking wonderful as usual!" James said and grinned, winking jokingly at her and smiling slightly as she rolled her eyes at him. She was so cute when she did that…

Lily rolled her eyes as Jen and Kathy laughed slightly. She glared at them but then smiled slightly, not wanting to be stuck in a bad mood for the rest of the day because of some random remark made by James Potter anyway. She regained her happy attitude and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear.

"Want to go for some ice cream?" Sirius suggested, smiling slightly as he looked from one girl to the other then around at all the shops and people pushing around.

"Sure!" Kathy and Jen agreed.

Lily tried not to glare at her friends, as she knew all they wanted to do was to try and get her to talk to James somehow without trying to bite his head off. Jen and Kathy stifled laughs and ignored her, chatting animatedly to Sirius, and attempting to drive him mad by talking too fast on purpose. Lily and James laughed at this as they followed them into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, to find Remus and Peter waiting for all of them.

They ordered ice cream and then Sirius and Jen started arguing about which spell was best to use to hex someone like Lucius Malfoy, and it seemed like a heated discussion. Kathy was talking in her usual cheerful tone to Remus and Peter about who she heard was going to be their new DADA teacher this year.

"I heard she's nice and used to be an auror..hehe. I hope she's nicer than last years teacher."

James turned and looked at Lily, "so..whats up?" he asked her in a casual conversational tone, turning his head to look at her. She was so pretty. He loved absolutely everything about her, if only she knew, if only she knew how much he cared about her. Inwardly, he knew that someday, she was going to be with him. 

Lily shrugged slightly, moving her spoon around her ice cream and glancing back at James. "Nothing." She said and brushed a strand of hair away from her face, trying to avoid his eyes, the thing that always got her about him. She loved his eyes.

Soon enough, James and Lily where having a conversation, with Lily looking slightly surprised James wasn't asking her out a hundred time already, though she was surprised in a good way. (A/N : Can I be anymore complicated? XD). She smiled slightly as the conversation continued and then she glanced off at the books he had set on the table and remembered that there was one book she had planned to buy, but obviously forgotten.

"Erm… I have to go buy a book! Ill be right back!" she said and jumped up from her chair then ran to Flourish and Blotts, dodging little kids on her way and muttering apologies to people.

'This is not happening .. this is not happening .. James Potter is being nice?!' she thought wildy as she pushed the door to the bookstore open, and bumped right into Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape outside the store, making him drop all his things and herself to fly backwards onto the floor as some passers by laughed as she brushed her red hair out of her face to see who she had very shamefully run in to.

"Sorry," she muttered and she started to stand up to apologise again, picking up one of Malfoy's books to hand it to him, still not knowing who it was she had bumped in to since she was blushing so much and refused to look up.

"Watch it mudblood!" Lucius sputtered, his cold voice sending a shiver down her spine while he was dusting off his robes where Lily bumped into him as if it was something disgusting, and snatching his book from her and examining it "No filth on it," he mumbled to himself and smiled meanly, putting the book in a bag and then glared at Lily, his icy blue eyes turning to slits while he bore holes in to her face, which turned even redder at the insults. 

Snape looked at her as if she were some kind of toe fungus and stepped back, smirking at her evilly.

"Its not like I wanted to bump into you Malfoy!" she yelled angrily, stomping her foot slightly and tossed his stupid book at him as she felt her temper rise. Uh-oh. Not good. When Lily's temper started to flare, the most thing advised to do was to step back. All people knew this and were more than happy to step out of the way when she was angry and in reach of a wand.

Snape sniggered as Malfoy withdrew his wand from his robes and pointed it Lily. "Watch your mouth, your piece of crap." He said dangerously as he glared at her.

Lily took out her own wand and glared fiercly at Malfoy and Snape. "You had best leave me alone, you two low lives who will turn out to be useless tramps for the rest of your useless, dark filled lives!" she raged at them.

James appeared next to her, obviously seething by the cold of fury on his face as she shoved Malfoy out of the way.

"Back off," he said dangerously.

"Oh look, Potter has a crush on the mudblood," Snape smirked, forgetting just what James might do to him if he and the Marauders caught him somewhere. Hex, hex, hex….

Malfoy laughed coldly, his eyes showing no emotion as he pushed James back, glaring at him with hatred quite evident on his face.

James hexed them both then turned and started walking back to Florean Fortescue's Ice cream parlor with Lily, ignoring their groans and calls for help as he tried to calm himself down slightly, still not looking at Lily. 

"Thanks .. but I could have handled them by myself!" she said angrily, glaring at James as she shoved her wand in to her robe pocket irritatedly. 

"I was only trying to help!" he said, slightly angrily and turned away from her, walking a little bit ahead of her and muttering things about ungrateful people these days and waving a hand in sarcasm. Lily shook her head and wondered why her best friends where running over to her looking panicked, well Kathy to be exact.

"We have to go!" they said at the same time.

"We're late, we were supposed to be home half an hour ago!" Kathy said, sounding exasperated and worried as she brushed her hair away from her face. "Ack, where have you been Lily, why didn't you tell us you were going to the book store?"

"Relax!" Jen snapped, hating the feeling of people panicking around her. 

They all said their Goodbye's and the girls went back home.

"Bye!" James called after them and sighed slightly, walking back into Florean Fortescue's Ice cream parlor and wondering if he could be any stupider. 

[Back at the house!]

"Katherine Mary Robinson, where have you been!? Do you realize that you are 30 minutes late girls?!" Mrs. Robinson said angrily, frowning slightly as she walked over to them crossing her arms over her chest and looking from one to the other as thought expecting an answer, and they all started talking at once. 

"Sorry we lost track of time-"

"We were doing allot of things-"

They all started talking at the same time but then Mrs. Robinson forgave them.

"Alright, alright, but don't let it happen again.. now you girls might want to go to bed a bit early today if you don't want to miss the train tomorrow!" Mrs. Robinson added as a reminder as the girls started going up the stairs to Kathy's room. "And girls, please start being more responsible, you are in your Seventh Year now, and you are all seventeen and that means that you have to start growing up and taking things more seriously!" 

Kathy sighed with relief, rolling her eyes slightly as she shook her head at her moms words. Jeez the woman made it sound like they had just commited a crime! 

"Well that went better than you were expecting, didn't it Kath?..argh I hate it when you panick like it's the end of the damn world!" Jen said and frowned, plopping down on Kathy's bed after they walked in.

Lily laughed.

Kathy rolled her eyes at Jen and threw her pillow at her, and then her eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, look!" she said and walked over to a bad cheerfully, pulling out a wizard camera, "I figured since this is our last year at Hogwarts I'd fool around with this! It'll be fun taking pictures of certain occasions and keeping them as memores." she grinned "Hehe.."

Jen snatched it from her "I'm already getting ideas!" she said and grinned evilly, running a hand over the camera thoughtfully. You could nearly see the wheels turning behind her eyes. Some people were in for it, this year, with that thing around.

Lily rolled her eyes, "don't start Jen.." she said exasperatedly, knowing her best friends antics all too well to forget what Jen could do when in close tough with an object that could cause much trouble.

Jen's eyes glittered mischievously "Just think of all the stuff we can do with this camera!" she squeaked, smiling at the camera fondly.

Kathy laughed and took it from her, "Yes we'll have to wait and see then."

[Next Day]

Lily, Jen, and Kathy all rushed around in Kathy's room, Jen screaming about having to brush her long, slightly tangled, curly hair and was packing her trunk and trying to find her stuff at the same time while Lily sat on her trunk, trying to close it and French braiding her hair while she was sitting on it, Kathy was pulling on her shoes and yelling at Jen to shut up and Lily to hurry up. After 10 minutes of stumbling around, the girls were dragging their trunks out of Kathy's room, wearing Muggle clothes. Lily was wearing denim jeans and a white turtleneck, Kathy was wearing a lavender t-shirt and a jean skirt, and Jen was wearing a blue jacket, a yellow tank and black bootleg pants. (A/N : I jus had to mention that … -_- ..)

After wolfing down breakfast quickly, the girls rushed outside to stuff their trunks and pet cages into the car and then set off to King's Cross Station.

[Hogwarts Express!]

"Oh my God, that was the most rushed event of my life!" Kathy said and sighed relivedly, leaning against the wall. "Phew..the door was just closing when we jumped in..unbelievable!" she said, running a hand through her hair slightly and adjusting her top. Jen nodded in agreement, looking slightly bewildered. She was the one who had to nearly die squished between her friends while the door closed, of course. Lily was looking slightly skeptical. She was late for arriving at the Prefects carriage, and watching everything go in order, and that wasn't good. 

She quickly waved to her friends and made her way to the Prefects carriage, a frown growing on her face as she saw the person waiting for her, leaning against the door frame with a smirk on his face. 

"Your late, you know." James said, smirking at Lily slightly. He knew that she hated to be late, or disorganized, or out of order. Well, everyone knew. 

"Shut it Potter.." she growled and pushed past him, frowning slightly as the tall boy didn't even seem offended by her actions. 

He followed her, "we have to tell the other Prefects what to do now.." he said, raising an eyebrow at her attitude so far. He didn't really ask to be Head Boy, did he? He and the other Marauders agreed that Dumbledore was drunk when he picked this years Head Boy.

"Fine." She said and shrugged, not looking at James as she stepped in to the room with all the Prefects in it. She gave a little speech, instructing the Prefects to set a good example fo rthe younger ones, and also to please make sure everything was in order, and James did the same, except he had to get in to more detail and answer the questions then both of them had to patrol the corridors and check everything was okay.

After an hour and a half of doing this, both Lily and James decided to find their friends, and they were both surprised to see their friends sitting together, strange, really strange indeed. Lily raised an eyebrow at her friends, wanting to kill them both. They were mad went they? Did they just really, really want her to like James or something or was it that Mrs. Robinson had put something mysterious in their food?

Jen smiled at them. "Hallo!" she said happily and nodded her head at the smiling James and the dark-looking Lily. She knew Lily was mad at them because she knew that Lily knew what they were up to. 

Kathy was laughing so hard at Peter because he just chocked on an Earwax flavoured bean, she almost didn't notice Lily and James come in, she was trying to catch her breath while Remus half tried not to laugh at her while he helped Peter then going back to his book.

Sirius grinned as he looked over to Lily and James, nodding his head in a rather casual fashion as he sat back in his chair "Hey Prongsie and Evans! How's it going?!". Lily snarled at him and sat down quietly.

"Fine," Lily answered and poked Kathy hard so she would stop laughing and glared at James as he sat down next to her, grinning slightly. James decided to ignore her might make her feel better and turned away, shaking his head slightly with a sigh. 

James looked over at Remus "Hey Remus, what are you reading?" he asked conversationally, noticing the book in his friends hands. Books were a part of his appearance anyway. 

Remus shrugged "Our new DADA book." He said casually. Remus usually read the new DADA book before every year out of interest more than anything really. 

Sirius frowned, "and why haven't you fallen asleep yet reading that thing?" he asked and raised an eyebrow at him like reading a school bookw as the most ridiculous thing ever. "I mean, its so useless mate!" he said seriously and nodded while Lily shook her head at him, as though she pitied him grately.

"Because he's not as thick as you are," Lily answered for Remus and rolled her eyes at Sirius, who glared at her with a slight pout. 

"Hi Lovebirds!" Kathy says to Lily and James. 

Lily shot daggers at Kathy and started yelling about how she would never like James, even if her life depended on it, and stormed out of the compartment, leaving everyone inside laughing, excluding Remus, and partly James of course.

Lily muttered angrily to herself after telling off some third years for setting off a dungbomb in the hall.

She changed into her school robes quickly and ran over to the compartment her friends were in and dragged James out without a glance at her friends or anyone else in the compartment.

"What?" James asked, a slightly confused look on his face at the sudden actions. 

"The train is going to stop anytime now, we have to supervise everything, that's what!" she snapped impatiently, shaking her head at James.

James glared at her "I know that!" he said stubbornly and turned away from her.

Lily rolled her eyes and started making her way through the crowd as the train stopped, the doors to the train were opened, and people where quickly piling out nearly stepping on each other and not watching where they where going.

"NO PUSHING!"Lily bellowed over the noise of the crowd, and started making her way out of the train after James, to supervise what was going on outside, they had to make sure everyone got onto the carriages and no trouble was going on. She sighed as she saw James sort of neglect an argument between two people going on near himself. She sighed.

This was going to be a long year./

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A/N: *freaks out* eeeeeeeeh!*squeals* This is my first fic, I know its not that good and I just hope that you make some suggestions if you review, which im hoping you'll do! * grins * ahhh, no flames please! Okey, so this took me about 5 days to make because all my evil ideas and stuff were jumbled .. I have a feeling its not good but I want to know what you guys think ! I would be so happy if you reviewed my story @_@..hehe..im going to thank all my reviewers personally (when I get any XD). I hope I got what the Prefects do right, because im not very sure about it, J.K Rowling was never descriptive about the Prefect tasks and duties and stuff .. and sorry if theres any errors or anything!


	2. Chapter 2: A Plan Is Formed

° - A Plan Is Formed - °

Lily smiled as she walked in to the Great Hall with Kathy and Jen, and she could immediately feel her spirits lift. It always happened when Lily was back at Hogwarts, as soon as she stepped in to the Great Hall, she felt like she was back at home, back where she belonged. The homely feeling of the Great Hall and the buzz of students talking excitedly about their summers, or greeting friends from other houses was wonderful, 

"I am exhausted." She said with a sigh, pushing a strand of red hair away from her face. It felt so good to be back, like she wanted to fly.

Jen was smiling just like Lily, as was Sirius, since all three of them considered Hogwarts their home and not where they actually lived. The girls sat down near the middle of the table, and James at opposite them, with Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Lily glared at him and turned away stubbornly, beginning a conversation with Kathy since Jen was speaking with Frank Longbottom animatedly about her summer. 

Sirius grumbled as he looked around, the students were still taking their seats, "I hope they hurry up with the Sorting, I'm **starving**.." he said and frowned, running a hand through his hair. 

"But you nearly bought the whole food trolley on the train," Peter said, confused slightly as he looked at Sirius.

"Yeah, but I'm **_still_** hungry." Sirius snapped, growing impatient as the everyone was finally seated.

Remus turned to the girls, "do you think the Sorting Hat's made up a new song this year?"

All of them nodded, "Yes, most likely, it has." Kathy said seriously "It makes up a new one every year, surprised you don't remember, Remus" she said and smiled, then turned to look at Jen who was looking as grouchy and impatient as Sirius. 

James sniggered, "Look at those midgets …" he said and grinned as the first years walked, all looking very nervous and occasionally glancing at the ceiling. Lily smiled at those who looked at her. 

"Shut up James, you were a first year once too," she snapped and glared at him, shaking her head at him. '_Hmph..he's so stupid!' _ she though.

Jen groaned and rolled her eyes, turning to Lily and James, "Not now, you two, later!" she snapped, and banged her head on the table once. 

Kathy, Remus and Sirius all laughed as Lily and James turned away from each other stubbornly.

Everyone fell silent, though as Professor McGonagall placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and then put a very old, patched hat on it, the first years stared at it and so did everyone else, and there was a moment of silence before a tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat broke into a song.

Everyone applauded after the Sorting Hat was finished with the song and watched as Professor McGonagall read out the first name.

"Aarlington, Kym."

And Kym was sorted into Gryffindor.

Sirius growled, looking very disgruntled and irritated, like he wanted to kill someone as Professor McGonagall was now passing the 'M's.

"Relax," Remus said, frowning, while clapping as Sarah March was sorted in to Ravenclaw.

Soon enough, after all the First Years were sorted, Professor Dumbledore stood up and smiled, his arms open it welcome, "I have only two words for you, tuck in!" he said and sat back down, as the plates all filled with food and the students laughed slightly at the Professors' words. 

Sirius and Jen's plates were piled twice as high with food as much as anyone else and both of them seemed to be having a competition of who could eat more.

Lily laughed as she ate some roast potatoes, glancing at James who was talking to Remus in a low voice, his eyes darting around every now and then to check if there were any eavesdroppers.

Lily and Jen were soon getting into an argument about the new Potions teacher and Kathy had turned to talk to Peter and Sirius instead of attempting to listen.

After everyone had finished their desert, Professor Dumbledore stood up again and the Great Hall grew silent again.

"Welcome, and to all of those returning, welcome back!" he said, smiling around at al of them.

"I must once more ask for your attention as I make a few notices, Mr.Filch the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of forbidden objects inside the castle has been extended to…..if anyone would like to check the full list, its in Mr.Filch's office. Now, I must remind all of you, that Forest on the grounds is out of bounds to all students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third-year. Magic is not allowed in the corridors, and students may not wander around the castle after … (whatever the time is they're supposed to be inside, and now it is late, as I know how important to you all to be alerted and rested as you inter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

And there was a great deal of scraping and banging as everyone got up to proceed out of the Great Hall.

Lily got up and looked at James, pulling his arm slightly; "James c'mon we have to go!" she said and started walking over to the doors, James running to catch up with her as she was far ahead of him, barking at everyone to relax and wait for some instructions. 

"They are diffenetly made for each other." Sirius said and Jen nodded, "mmm hmm" she murmured in agreement.

Remus, Kathy and Peter laughed as they all walked out of the Hall together, watching as James and Lily told the Prefects what to do and quickly split up, stopping some trouble makers here and there. 

[2 Weeks Later-Monday]

The first two weeks of Hogwarts that passed where the typical ones that were filled with homework, projects and extra work for Lily and James, beign Head Boy and Girl. The students were all rushing around, either neglecting their studies or working their butts off for the effort of not failing. The Seventh Years, of course, were having the hardest time of all since they had to cover a lot of material for the year. The Professors had to check who would get to be in some advanced classes, and which students needed extra help. The Professors were working with the students to build for their futures after Hogwarts.

Well now, of course the people like Lily Evans would stop at nothing to get in to all the advanced classes, or study. She would study, be on her best behaviour and be serious most of the time, as was Kathy, but Jen was having a **_little_** trouble putting up with being too serious for once in her life.

There also came days in these two weeks that the Marauders could not help being Marauders and pull a few **harmless** pranks…or so they called them!

"HE WILL NEVER GROW UP, WILL HE?!" Lily Evans yelled, stomping into the common room… with green hair and the most furious look so far in the two weeks at Hogwarts. She slammed her books down on a table, positively fuming.

Kathy and Jen held back laughter as they entered behind her, and Jen answered "He didn't mean to aim the spell at you, Lils, he was pointing at Snivelly!" she said, laughing slightly as her friends green hair matched her eyes in a way. 

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" she raged, nearly ripping the hair out, both because of disgust, and rage , "He shouldn't have been pointing his wand at ANYONE, especially not in the middle of the corridors!" she said angrily. "AND ESPECIALLY NOT WHILE HE'S HEAD BOY!" she screamed.

Kathy grinned as she sat down on the couch, shaking her head and deciding to ignore Lily, it was quite typical for her to get this angry, with a flaming temper to match her fiery red hair.

Jen sat next to her and both of them watched Lily as she stomped around the common room, yelling and ranting.

"We know she likes him," Kathy said, "Ys we do," Jen said, both of them nodding and watching Lily. 

Lily stormed into the Girls Dormitories just as Remus, Sirius, James and Peter walked into the common room.

"Hi!" Jen said and nodded slightly. 

"Hey" they all replied, and then James and Peter went into the Boys Dormitories.

"She's not really mad is she?" Sirius grinned and sat down facing Jen and Kathy, as Remus pulled out a book and began to busy himself with it.

"Yes she is!" Kathy said, frowning slightly and rolling her eyes at him. "I could have sworn the whole castle heard her screaming. She isn't just angry, she is fuming." She said and shrugged. "But we still think she likes him anyway." Jen said and smiled evilly. "Hah."

Sirius scratched his chin, apparently thinking. He looked weird, actually thinking for once in his life.

"Now there's a surprise.." Remus said and grinned, looking up from his book with a grin on his face.

"Shut up, Moony," Sirius barked, looking up with an irritated look on his handsome face, but soon it turned in to a grin. "What?" they all mused. They knew this meant something. "Well, my friends, I think I have a plan to confirm if Lily really likes Prongsie-boy or not!" he said and smiled arrogantly. "Want to hear it?" he asked annoyingly.

"YES!" they all cried out, impatiently and made a circle around him so the other people in the common room wouldn't hear.

"Well…since not even McGonagall could force the truth about James from Lily, that she likes him. I know something that can…" he said and nodded seriously, looking from one interested face to the other.

"Well, tell us, what are you waiting for?" Remus said, frowning slightly impatiently as he raised an eyebrow at James.

"Veriteserum." He said and grinned, feeling like a genious. The others faces' lit up. 

"Why didn't we think of that before?!" Jen grinned, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. This was it! The absolute plan!

"Brilliant" Kathy said with a laugh. She knew Sirius would have come up with something like this, he was smart after all, even though he seemed dumb anyway. All of them were very interested now, all of them fidgeting in their seats excitedly, waiting for instructions, they were diffenetly in if action was going to be taken on this thought. 

Remus sighed slightly, looking at all of them. "I hate to be the one to break it to you genius's, but where exactly are you going to get the stuff from?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. 

"Simple," Sirius said with an evil grin, he always had the small things planned out for when he knew they were coming. He looked at all of them. "We break into Angleton's (Potions Master) office tonight…and get it!" he said happily. 

"We?" Remus said. "IM IN!" Jen said and grinned, her gray eyes shining like they always did when there was a time she could cause trouble, or when something interesting was going on. 

Kathy frowned "No. Way." She said, shaking her head. 

Remus smiled "I know! Me and Kathy can distract James and Lily if you two can go and get it tonight!" he said, and looked over to Kathy who nodded in agreement.

Jen and Sirius nodded "Okay!"

"Question!" Kathy said "How do we get Lily to drink it?" Jen rolled her eyes "Were going to hand it to her and say 'Here Lily, have this so we could ask you about James!'" she said sarcastically. Kathy blushed and Remus shook his head, as Sirius snorted with laughter. Kathy glared at Jen and turned away from her, a red tint coming across her cheeks. 

"We slip it into a drink and give it to her!" Jen said, like it was the most obvious thing in the whole damn world. 

"Right.." Remus said and nodded. 

"So what kind of distraction are you and Kath going to do?" Sirius asked Remus, smiling slightly. This was so great. 

"We'll think of something.." Kathy said and Remus nodded in agreement. It couldn't be that heard. 

"But how can we get into his office with no one noticing?" Jen said with a frown. She knew that most students roamed the halls in their free time, either exploring ot getting from one place to the other. She was sure someone would see, let it be a teacher or a fellow student. 

Sirius smirked "I know how. We'll do it when everyone's at dinner!" he said easily, shrugging slightly as he put his palms behind his head in a relaxed fashion. 

Jen groaned, "Does it have to be dinner???" she asked and frowned slightly. 

"Yes!" Remus, Kathy and Sirius said in unison and glared at Jen sharply, even though Sirius secretly shared that thought. 

Jen grumbled "Fine fine.." she said grumpily. 

Moments later, Lily walked out of the Girls Dormitories, her hair back to its normal color, she raised an eyebrow when she saw all of them huddled up and walked over to them, corssing her arms over her chest loosely. They did look like they were up to something. This wasn't good. Lily sighed and cleared her throat loudly. 

"What are you doing?" she asked then curiously, rasing un eyebrow. 

"Nothing!" Sirius said and they all quickly un-huddled and attempted to look casual as they looked at Lily. 

"Well, its time for dinner we should get going!" Lily said, shrugging off the fact that they all did NOT look innocent at all. 

"Yeah, lets go!" Jen said, standing up, not noticing the glares she was receiving from the others, but walked out with Lily, blushing because she knew the mistake she had made.

"Ah we'll just have to do it tomorrow then!" Remus said and the others nodded, "We'll probably have thought of a distraction by then…anyway I'm sure Jen didn't meant to." He said and shrugged as he started walking out of the common room.

"Yeah I guess.." Sirius said and ran out of the common room to catch up with Walter Thomas, another one of their dorm mates. 

Peter and James walked out of the boy's dorms a moment after and walked over to Remus and Kathy.

"Lets go to dinner," James said, and he, Remus, Kathy and Peter set off to the Great Hall.

[Dinner]

Once again, at dinner, Sirius and Jen were having an eating competition. Kathy was cheering for Jen, while James and Peter were rooting for Sirius. Remus and Lily seemed uninterested, just a little bit and were eating and talking quietly while their friends cheered each other on.

"Go Jen, you know he'll drop dead soon!" Kathy said with a laugh.

Lily grinned and watched as Jen started more food into her mouth then at Sirius, who was eating as if he could never stop.

After 5 minutes of hastily stuffing food into their mouths, Jen groaned and hit her head on the table "AH I can't take it anymore!" she said after swallowing and laughed, so did all the others as she high-fived Sirius.

Sirius stopped eating and snickered "see! I told yew you couldn't take the Master of food title from me!" he said and smiled, taking another bite of mash potatoes. How much the boy could eat, was beyond them all. 

The girls rolled their eyes and turned away. 

Jen frowned " think I've gained 5 pounds or something.." she groaned, running a hand through her blonde hair and pushing her food away, looking around the Great Hall. 

Lily laughed, "I don't think so Jen, you look fine to me!" 

Sirius smiled at her, "Don't worry, we all gain…but you don't look like you did anyway." He said half air headedly and went back to eating. 

Jen blushed, rolling her eyes, and James snickered, as Sirius punched his shoulder. 

Kathy tried to talk through a mouth full of treacle tart but got a silencing glare from Lily, and decided not to. 

James smiled and looked at Lily.

"Hey Lily … are you still mad at me?" he asked, slightly in a weird tone of voice, almost like he was hopeful that she wasn't. He smiled at her slightly. 

Lily merely grunted and turned her head away from him then looked back at him.

"We have a meeting after dinner." She said formally, pursing her lips in a thin line as she raised an eyebrow at him, expecting him to go, 'What meeting?'

James blinked. "What meeting?"

Lily frowned "A prefect meeting!" she said and rolled her eyes, hitting her head on the table exasperatedly and shutting her eyes as though praying for patience from God. 

James nodded slowly "Aaah okay…" he said dumbly, turning away from her. 

Lily just turned away from him again and started talking to Jen. Kathy was talking to Peter about the school Quidditch teams and Remus was arguing with Sirius about something that sounded like 'manners'. 

"Why were you guys huddled up when I walked into the Common Room today?" Lily asked Jen. Jen was the type of person who could look you in the eye, and she still could lie. It was a gift more than anything, as some called it. She shrugged slightly and looked back at Lily. "Nothing, Lils, we were just talking about random things." She said casually and calmly. 

"Right," Lily said and raised an eyebrow.

"It's the truth." Jen said calmly and shrugged, looking relaxed, as though she wasn't lying through her teeth, which she was. 

Lily sighed and looked at James.

"Lets go James, we should be there before all the other Prefects." She started and stood up, looking at him expectantly. 

"Alright." James said, standing up and walking out of the Great Hall with Lily.

[Prefect Meeting]

James and Lily walked in silence to the room where the Prefect meetings were held, James glancing at Lily every now and then of course. They stepped in, to find all the Prefects already there, sitting.

"Ok…so whats this meeting about Lily?" James whispered to her.

She frowned, shaking her head "I told you today at breakfast!" she said impatiently, glaring at him slightly. She sighed, was this what she had to work with for the rest of the bloody year? 

"Oh, I was half-asleep then.." he said, grinning sheepishly and scratching the back of his head while she sighed again. 

She rolled her eyes and greeted some Prefects that were late, giving them disapproving looks while she was at it too, of course. This earned her glares behind her back. She turned back to James.

"Hi Lily, James!" said a girl with long, pale blonde hair and huge aqua blue eyes, 5th year Hufflepuff prefect, Serena Ackley.

"Hi." Lily and James said, smiling slightly at her.

Soon, after all the Prefects were sitting at the table inside, Lily spoke up in a rather official and formal tone. 

"Okay, me and James called you all here today to make a few announcements. Since you all have a certain time your supposed to be patrolling the halls, that's all been changed for some reasons, and let me remind you that you aren't allowed to take points from any house!" she said seriously, looking at all of them. 

"Yup …if anyone makes trouble, you can give me or Lily their name and their house and we'll deal with it.." he said, as the Prefects all nodded their head, surprised at James sounding slightly serious, and speaking in the same tones as Lily was.

"Oh, James and I have decided that the date for the next Hogsmeade trip is this weekend," Lily said, and the Prefects chatted amongst themselves eagerly. "I believe you all know that you are required to put that announcement up in the bulletin board in your common rooms, don't you?" she said and all of them nodded. 

James made the next few announcements then everyone left, chatting amongst themselves about their duties. 

As they were going up to the staircases that lead to the Gryffindor Common Room, James caught up with Lily and stopped her, a slightly confused and meaningful look on his face as he looked at her. He didn't know why, but he had a sudden urge to ask her this question.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, looking at her seriously as she was about to glare at him, her green eyes narrowing slightly as she turned to face him. 

"Make it quick Potter, I have to do my homework.." she said as a lame excuse. The look on his face told her enough that this might not be a lame thing.

"Why do you hate me so much?" he asked her softly, a rather hurt and disappointed look on his face as he glanced at the ground the back at her, expecting her to yell at him and walk away, screaming or shaking her head. Bu that's not what happened, actually, lucky for James. 

Lily stared blankly at him "…I don't hate you…hate is a strong word. I just find your attitude too arrogant and insensitive," she said, looking up at him with a slightly guilty glint in her eyes as she spoke, refusing to meet his soulful brown eyes, which she knew looked hurt, and that was when she couldn't bare to meet his eyes.

"Oh…right.." he said and nodded, "But I was being nice to you today, and you didn't even give me a chance." He said and looked at her. 

"I have to go!" she said and rushed into the common room, then up to the girls dormitories after entering the Common Room.

_-What was that all about?-_ she thought as she sat down on her bed –_Potter was being civil all this time and I didn't notice?…was he that big headed anyway?..maybe he's right_- then a second voice came into her head –**HELLO?! This is James Potter we are talking about, arrogant, insensitive, bullying toerag!-** -_Yes, but he changed_- -**No he didn't, he's just trying to get you to like him, the stupid prat!- **_-But if he was he would have asked me out a hundred times by now..-_ **-Hah…its coming**..- -_Maybe I should be nicer to him-_ she thought then went into the common room and found Remus, Sirius, Kathy and Jen all huddled again, seeming as though they were planning for something highly important.

"Alright, what is going on?" she asked and walked over, looking serious and suspicious, as she looked at all of them, expecting some answers this time as she looked at some relaxed faces and some rather nervous ones. She knew they were up to something; it was so obvious that it wasn't funny. 

"Ah-nothing,"Sirius said innocently and smiled, leaning back on the couch. 

"We were telling them how to get into the kitchens, and we didn't want anyone to hear us.." Remus said, sounding convenient as he nodded coolly and shrugged, leaning over to pick up the book he had been reading before they decided to have a 'meeting'. 

"Okay," Lily said and sat down, still staring at all of them suspiciously as she picked up a quill" and began writing a letter to home.

"Where is James?" Kathy asked and blinked, looking around the common room.

"He said he wanted to sleep early today." Sirius answered with a shrug, Jen nodded then started telling a joke.

Lily and Remus both got up and went to bed, leaving Jen, Kathy and Sirius still laughing hysterically over the joke.

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A:N : And that's all for this chapter folks! Hehe..once again, if you haff any suggestions or ideas for the story please tell me..please review, please please please..it took me allot to make this chapter..well allot of hard thinking and stuffies @_@…I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU HAVE TO REVIEW FOR ME!*cries*Lol XD. Once again, im not sure what the Prefects exactly do..so..yeah..and once again, sorry for any errors, or if anything sounds complicating, allot of things are going to happen, just give it time and patience..im trying to learn how to ACTUALLY organize my thoughts, and that's new for me XD. And to all of those wondering, Kathy and Remus are just friends, and Jen and Sirius wont start going out, they're all just friends! Well I might make Jen and Sirius go out..I dunno @_@..

To all the people who reviewed my last chapter, thank you so much! I really, really appreciated it .. I almost ran around the house screaming –PEOPLE LIKE MY STORY-..I even almost cried XD..that's how much it meant to me ^_^, so thanks a billion thanks again.

elvencherry07:Thank you for telling me what you think! ^_^

girlwholived: yeh really think its good for my first one? I was so happy when I read that!

LilyEvans777 : thanks for reviewing ! im glad you like it :) 

Aneta:hehe thanks!

crazyinluv : you will not believe how overly-happy your review made me! honestly, I almost cried because of what you said, so I just want to say thank you, because I felt better about my fic! ^_^

aero0617:ya think so ^_^? Well, im really, very glad you do, im working as hard as I can to make it interesting!

PonyLuvrGirl : Thank you for putting my story on your favourites list, I really appreciate it!

Just to let you all now, it was you guys who made me update faster, and feel better, and run around the house screaming *sobs* I love you all!


	3. Chapter 3: Veriteserum and Love Poems

° - Love Poems and Veritaserum- °

[Midnight – Wednesday]

Kathy woke up around Midnight, and grinned slightly, rolling off her bed elegantly and making her way over to Jen's bed, to find that Jen was already awake, shockingly enough. "Get up, we have to go get Sirius and Remus!" she whispered in a deathly quiet voice, standing up straight and helping Jen off her bed. They both tiptoed out of the dorm and made their way to the boys dorms, opening the door gently.

Jen stuffed her first inside her mouth to stop her self laughing as she looked around and Kathy nudged her in the ribs lightly, "shut up," she whispered, holding back laughs herself as she walked over to Sirius' bed, smiling slightly as she wondered what his reaction would be when she woke him up all of a sudden.

Kathy put her hand over Sirius' mouth and shook him gently with the other hand. Nothing happened. She slapped his face, with her hand still over his mouth and his eyes widen and he looks shocked, Jen put a finger to her mouth and glared at him, as Kathy removed her hand from his mouth while Jen began to crack up silently as he shot up in his bed and stared bewilderedly at them raising his eyebrows as he looked from one girl to the other.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Sirius yawned, glaring at them slightly.

Jen rolled her eyes at him as Kathy whispered, "We have to go get the Veriteserum, you idiot, now get up and lets go!" she said in a quiet tone as he hesitated to get up and leave the comfort of his bed.

"But its midnight!" he wailed, looking from Jen to Kathy with a slight frown on his face as he attempted to remain in bed. 

Jen glared at him, her dark gray eyes getting a scary look in them. He stood up and walked over to Remus, then woke him up quietly. Remus woke up quickly and quietly, so there was no need for a hassle with him.

After they all walked out of the dorm slowly and down the stairs in to the common room, Sirius grumbled, glaring at the girls. 

"Okay, if we go now, no one will see us, that's why we woke you up!" Kathy said and Jen nodded. She didn't like waking up as well, but hey, that was life when you were making evil plans for your friends.

Sirius yawned "yeah.." he said slowly, "guess your right!" he shrugged. 

Remus looked at them all then withdrew his wand from his robes and rapped them all over the head with it, then did it to himself, they all looked at him as though he had lost his mind, and he quickly explained. 

"Disillusionment Charm." Remus said. "Now lets go.."

They all nodded and walked out of the common room, and Jen led the way to the Potions' Masters office, all of them were walking very, very silently, trying not to even make noise breathing. 

Remus pointed his wand at the door " Alohomora! " he whispered as they all stopped in front of it. The door slowly opened and they all walked in, moving slowly and quietly. The Potions master might walk in any minute now. They were all afraid. 

After 5 minutes of looking for it Sirius poked them all and grinned annoyingly, "I found it! It's the strongest one he's got! Now Lily can't lie at all" he snickered. 

They all hissed at him to shut up and made their back to the common room.

Remus rapped them over the head with his wand again, which meant the charm had lifted. They all nearly congratulated each other. 

"ooooh I have an idea!" Kathy said and dropped herself on a couch, running a hand through her silky brown hair while she looked at all of them with her large different colored eyes. 

"Yes?" Jen said and looked at her. 

"Maybe we should all go to Hogsmeade on Friday, since that's the date Lily said everyone is going, and then we go to the Three Broomsticks and slip it in her drink, they bring her back here and we tell James…and we hide so he can ask her privately..yup, we hide at the stairs." Kathy said.

"No way!" Sirius said and frowned and they all snapped their heads towards him with a look of confusion, "It would be funnier if we watch," he snickered and they all relaxed, reassuring themselves that he hadn't lost his mind…well **completely** lost his mind, we should all say. 

"Yeah!" Jen said and Remus shrugged, he thought it was a good idea, but he knew anything else would work as well. Almost. 

"Fine, fine." Kathy said and yawned tremulously. 

"You do know that Lily will probably turn us all into bats with her wand when the potion wears off and she finds out, because people don't forget, they're kind of in a trance…" Remus said slightly uneasily, looking at all of them. They did look scared. They were all aware of what Lily could do, after watching her nearly practice most of it on James, it was quite easy to know that Lily had a mean temper and a good vocabulary for spells when she was angry anyway. 

"Big deal..Atleast then they can stop being so stubborn..they belong with each other!" Jen laughed and grinned slightly. 

Kathy and Sirius nodded in agreement.

"Well, goodnight guys, sorry for waking you up!" Jen said and handed Remus the container with Veritasarum in it.

"Don't lose it." She threatened, raising her eyebrows at him as he looked a little nervous.

"Don't." Kathy repeated and grinned. She knew Jen didn't really mean anything. She didn't do that to he friends anyway. Well most of the time, she didn't.

Remus smiled and gave them both reassuring looks, "I wont, promise." He said and then nudged Sirius who fell asleep on the couch, "Get up mate, lets go back." 

"Goodnight!" they said again and went into the girls dormitories. 

[Thursday Morning]

Lily shook Jen "JEN! JEN GET UP FOR HEAVENS SAKE WERE GOING TO BE LATE!and we'll miss breakfast." She added in the end and that's when Jen jumped out of the bed. "Not breakfast!" she said and ran into the bathroom, almost in the speed of light. The word 'breakfast' seemed to have taken affect on the tall, slender girl. Strange how one ate so much yet remained so thin. 

Kathy laughed, as she finished braiding her chocolate brown hair and fixing her Gryffindor tie. 

Lily shook her head and waited for then, Jen came out and yawned, "Lets go."

They all nodded and left the Girls Dormitories and entered the common room, and saw The Marauders sitting on a couch. "Good Morning!" James said and smiled.

"' Morning" the girls chanted. "Lets go to breakfast." Jen and Sirius said impatiently, in unison and everyone laughed, and they headed for breakfast with Jen and Sirius in the lead, both loking slightly grouchy from the lack of sleep and the excitement at the same time. 

"So who's going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Peter squeaked.

"Well, I thought it would be fun, if all of us went together, you know." Kathy said and shrugged, glancing around at all of them as she buttered a piece of toast.

Sirius, Remus, Peter (they let him in on the plan) and Jen nodded. Lily smiled "Okay, sounds fun." James agreed and they all finished breakfast hastily then Remus looked at all of them "We better get off to History of Magic, or we'll be late."

"Fine." Jen grumbled, "I hate that class..I read half a page and I fall asleep… it makes a nice tool to help fall asleep, that book does, I'm not kidding." She said and shrugged. 

"Me too." James, Sirius and Peter said.

Lily and Remus shook their heads as they all stood up and head off to the History of Magic class. 

[History of Magic Class]

Kathy poked Jen in the ribs, hard to get her to wake up "Get up!" she whispered fiercely, "are you planning to fail everything this year you useless lump?" she demanded slightly furiously. 

Jen grumbled and looked up, then turned to glare at Kathy, but Kathy and Lily were taking notes. "No." she snapped.

Remus was also taking notes, and Peter and James were having a conversation in the back of the class. Meanwhile, Sirius was forming something in his head.

Half the class cheered as the bell rang, and they gathered their things and left, all talking excitedly and feeling revived after a good nap.

**CRASH!**

"POTTER!" Lily yelled, then realized she was on top of James and got off, blushing, as James stood up "It was _your_ fault, Evans!" he snapped, like he **actually** minded. He smiled at her slyly, just to annoy her. It was one of those moments when you knew it wasn't your fault. She 

She scowled at him and stomped out of the class, Jen and Kathy rushing after her, almost crying with laughter as she stomped down the hall ranting about him again. 

"He is such an arse!" Lily fumed, stomping her foot on the ground while the walked.

"You bumped into him Lils!" Jen said, still laughing while she tried to convince Lily. 

"No I didn't, he was running!" she yelled furiously. 

"Fine, fine." Kathy said and grinned.

"She loves him to bits!" Jen whispered to Kathy and grinned, as they followed Lily to DADA."Yeah, and she doesn't know we took a picture of her when she was on top of him!" Kathy whispered back, and they both started laughing as they followed Lily to class. 

[Dinner]

Jen, Sirius, Kathy and James, sat having a discussion about weather or not Sirius and Jen would ever get really fat in the future from eating so much. Sirius and Jen seemed to merely nod and continue with conversation while the others discussed them.

Lily rolled her eyes and ate some of her steak, glancing at the book she was reading, ignoring the mindless chatter going on around her . Peter and Remus are watching the argument quietly. 

Sirius slowly drew himself out of the conversation and thought '_Hah! Its time for my perfect little scene now!'_. He grinned and pointed his wand directly at James under the table, muttering something long and confusing then waving his wand at them. 

_ "If loving you is wrong_

_Then my heart knows not what is right_

_What is there to do?_

_What is there to say?_

_I know I can't have you_

_But still I give my heart away_

_I'd walk a thousand miles_

_Just to know your love_

_Will be waiting for me_

_But what is there to feel?_

_When you don't feel the same?_

_I know I can't have you_

_But still I give my love away_

_You are my dream come true_

_I wished upon a star for you_

_But what am I to know?_

_If you really love me so_

_I know I can't have youBut still I give myself away."_

Then Sirius pointed his wand at Lily and she stood up on the table facing James and also recited a love poem:

_"Once I had a heart of stone_

_For it had surely lost its home_

_It could not love or wanted too_

_But in my life, then came you. _

_The stones began to fall away_

_As happiness began to fill my day_

_A feeling so sweet and special too_

_Could this be love, I pray is true. _

_My heart now sings a song of love_

_For I know that it was sent from above_

_My heart is warm, there is no cold_

_Hard no more, but with wings of gold._

_It soars above the sky so high_

_Sometimes I think of why and cry_

My heart now sings a loving song 

_For the part of me I thought was gone._

_The gift that you have given meIs so important, can't you see_

_No more sadness or being alone_

_For now my heart returns to home."_

At this point, the Hall was roaring with laughter and Sirius was running out of the Great Hall, closely followed by a very, very angry Lily and James, both of them yelling some very R-rated curses at him while they had steam coming out of their ears. 

They cornered him and there was a flash of light, and Sirius had purple skin, yellow eyes, orange hair, a pig snout and donkey ears, and he was looking pitiful, and hilarious of course as students from all around doubled over with laughter, the teachers attempting to break up the scene. 

Lily yelled at Sirius, "SIRIUS BLACK, HOW DARE YOU HUMILIATE ME AND JAMES LIKE THAT, SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WOULD DO SUCH A THING AS THAT, YOU MINDLESS AND INTOLERANT BRAT, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD HAVE GROWN UP, BUT I WAS WRONG, WHY DON'T YOU GETA LIFE, AND STOP BEING SO IMMATURE, ITS ABOUT TIME YOU RELAISE THATEVERYTHING IS NOT A BLOODY JOKE SIRIUS!" she said, and went on for about 5 minutes then stormed away, and James just glared at Sirius and walked the other direction, just as the others walked out of the Great Hall.

Remus changed Sirius back to the way he was, but only after Kathy had taken a picture of him with the wizard camera she brought in Diagon Alley.

[The common room]

Jen, Kathy and Lily sit in front of the fire in the common room, Kathy and Jen trying to convince Lily that it was funny, not embarrassing, but they were having quite a hard time convincing their friend really. She was humiliated that she couldn't even look at Sirius without yelling at him. She knew that the whole school were talking about I and that was something she did not need, more attention, she already had enough attention from School work and being HEAD GIRL, that meant even more attention for, unfortunately though, since she didn't LIKE attention. 

"I mean everyone **_knows_** that you and Potter **love** each other anyway!" Jen pointed out, shrugging slightly and raising her eyebrows slightly as she shut the books he was reading looked off in to the fire. 

"Jen" Lily said threateningly, poking her friend. 

"But do you listen to me?! NO!" Jen said, ignoring Lily with an annoying air to her actions, and then Kathy grinned, "I mean, it was kind of funny and all, you shouldn't be embarrassed.." she said and nodded. 

Lily snorted and Jen rolled her eyes at her "Lily, dear, Sirius only did that because you guys are too stubborn…" she said. "Well you, on the most part really" 

Kathy nodded vigorously in agreement to Jen. 

"Whatever," Lily said and stood up, shaking her head with a slight sigh. "I'm going to bed, good night." She said, gathered her things and went into the girls' dormitories, thinking bout someone she didn't often think about.

"Oh I can't wait till tomorrow," Jen laughed, laying down on the couch and setting the bookd own on the floor, "After she drinks it.." she said and smiled, "that is going to be amazingly funny, it will be !" 

"Yeah .. We'll take pictures.." Kathy grinned evilly. 

Just then, Remus, Sirius, James and Peter walked in, James glaring at Sirius darkly. 

James sat in the corner of the common room, and started doing his homework, not even looking over at the others. 

Sirius walked over to Kathy and Jen "I wonder what our little Jamesie is going to ask Evans tomorrow, I can't wait!" he said and smiled. 

Remus smiled "I don't know…" 

Peter laughed, "I know!"

"Whatever," Jen said then looked at all of them, "Don't tell James, not until tomorrow, Kathy and I are going to tell him after she drinks it… Hah... "

Peter snickered.

Sirius nodded "Okay.." he said and looked at all of then. 

Kathy turned to Remus "You haven't lost it have you?" she asked worriedly. She knew he knew she was talking about the Potion, even though it was not what she said. 

Remus looked at her "the potion? Nope. Of course not." He said, raising an euebrow at her. 

"Okay," Jen said and stood up, "I'm turning in for tonight, I don't want to be grumpy tomorrow.. Especially not tomorrow.." she grinned and Kathy followed her "'Night lads!"

Remus, Peter and Sirius, went up to sleep a little after the girls, but James fell asleep in the common room.

-° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° -° - ° -° - ° - ° - °- ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° -° - °- ° - ° - ° -

A/N:fweeeehehe XD.. Please R&R people! ;_; pweese? Because I love you? Lol..anyway, A huge, huge thanks to all of the people who put my story on their favorite stories list, and to those who put me as one of their favorite authors, lots of thanks! I was realleh happy when I saw ^_^. Im sorry I took long before I updated again, but there was something wrong with the story, and it wouldn't let me use the Document Manager, then I fixed it, so yeah, and because it took me long, I made this chapter AND another one, and sorry its taking long for her to take the Veritesarum, I know im a headache..lol..

ElizabethMM: Heyy thank you very much for reviewing, im glad you like it!!

PonyLuvrGirl: Thank you so much, reading your reviews makes me feel so happy.. I never thought I was a talented writer, or that this story was very good and all..so thanks ^_^! *hug *

LnJluver: Yes ma'am ^_^ (lol)! I has written more! Hehe thanks for reviewing!

i o u a name: Thanks for reviewing and, your welcome ^_^

JangoSnuffles: I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

Kat44: Of course I didn't consider it a flame, im actually glad you told me!^_^, oh and what is DS, well what do you mean? Lol..DS stands for Daliah Sadiq..my name..I don't like it..Lol, anyway, there's really a Jennifer Black? *runs to see if she see who that is in a search engine* XD, oh and thanks tons for reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4: History of Magic Homework

A/N : Yup yup this is the other chapter. This chapter was actually a part of the last chapter, but I decided to make it into two different chapters because of the problem that happened, lol, well, happy reading! XD

_____________________________________________________________________________

° - Hogsmeade - °

[Next Morning – Hogsmeade!] 

Lily's eyes slowly opened to meet sunlight, some strong sunlight actually. She groaned and rolled over in her bed, burying her face in her pillow. She quickly got over that, though, being the early riser she was. She smiled and got off her bed, dressing in casual clothes under her robes. She did her hair in a French braid and decided not to wake up everyone else till another hour, since it was way too early and it was Friday anyway. She slowly made her way down to the common room to find a figure sitting at a table in the corner. The common room looked so quiet, which was quite unusual. The sunlight was shining through the windows and on to the scarlet and gold furniture, illuminating the common room greatly. Her thoughts shifted back to the figure, though, the figure of a boy who had his head down with his arms around his head, so she could not tell who it was from a distance.

She walked over and recognized the untidy jet-black hair and knew it was James immediately.

Trying to stifle her laughter she bent down slightly and put her face exactly facing his then shook him gently, "James." She said softly. Nothing, "Jammess.." she repeated and shook him a little harder, giggling softly. He woke up and looked up, to find himself looking into a pair of startling emerald green eyes, he jumped in surprise, causing her to jump back too.

He blinked and sat up, wondering what he was doing in the common room.

"Why am I here?" he asked her and looked slightly confused, his hair sticking up even messier and his glasses slightly crooked as he looked around at the sunny, empty common room then back at Lily. 

"You must have fallen asleep when everyone went up!" she said, laughing slightly and shaking her head. She could not believe James fell asleep _studying._ What a shocker! She grinned slightly. That was a change for him, she was guessing, since James usually fell asleep planning pranks or telling jokes. 

"Oh...right.." he said and nodded, sitting up straight. He looked out the window and noticed it had to be around 6:30 a.m. "What are you doing up so early anyway?" he asked her, fixing his glasses and begging to shut some of the books.

She shrugged and sat down facing him, tucking a strand of dark red hair behind her ear. It was like she forgot she was mad at him. "I just decided to get up early.." she said amd shrugged, she actually liked to get up early anyway. She looked back at him. "Why did you fall asleep here?" 

"I was doing my History of Magic homework.." he said and grinned sheepishly. He knew that it was a change for him to be actually doing his homework. 

She laughed slightly, shaking her head. "It is not that boring, James"! she said, smiling slightly. "If you try to look at it from an interesting point of view, it might make sense or at least be a little, tiny bit interesting, you know?" she asked and smiled, feeling weird about giving homework tips to James Potter of all people…

"Yeah it is…" he said, nodding his head, "it is that boring, Lily, believe me, especially for a person who does not even like to study that much, History of Magic is like the extreme pain for me!" he started, shaking his head at the thought of even _attempting_ to like History of Magic, it was just plain scary really, "and the class is even more boring!" he said then did an impression of Professor Binns explaining something, in his droning voice. 

Lily chuckled and shook her head slightly "Yeah but it can come in useful at times!" she pointed out. And she was right, sometimes the little things you learned came up useful in some situations.

And for the next hour, till everyone woke up, James and Lily continued to talk. They talked about everything. Their friends, their family's, their studies, a lot of things like that. Lily even told him what a TV was. 

Jen and Kathy emerged from the Girls Dormitories and into the common room to find Lily and James talking about which type of candy is better, Sugar Quills or Chocolate Frogs.

"Good Morning!" Jen said cheerfully (A/N : shes only cheerful because today is the day they give Lily the Veritasarum, other than that, Jen is NOT a morning person XD)

Lily raised an eyebrow "what are you so cheerful about Jen?" she asked, surprised at her. Jen was not your typical morning girl, no sir. If Jen was to be herself right now, she would be grumbling and being grouchy, shoving people out ofer way and looking like she had never felt so tired before in her whole life. 

"Nothing," she said quickly and Kathy laughed, as she tied her brown hair into a low ponytail, while Jen's, long, curly hair was untied and slightly messy, as she was too excited to brush it this morning anyways. 

"Hallo." Kathy said and grinned.

"Hi," James said to the girls, and smiled then stood up, "well, if you'll excuse me girls, I have to go." He said and grinned, gathering his things and books off the table before striding off to the boys' dorms. 

"Bye" they all said as he went into the boys' dormitories, and then Lily turned to see Kathy and Jen smirking at her. She rolled her eyes and sighed slightly, then looked at them exasperatedly. 

"What?" she said.

"You were being normal with James, it means you like him!" Kathy grinned, giggling slightly and wagging her eyebrows annoying at Lily.

Jen continued to smirk "I knew it, I knew it, since our second or first year!"

Lily almost blushed then said, "I do NOT like him, and we were just talking!" she said and frowned. Damn friends had to be sooo annoying when it was uncalled for. 

"Riiight." Jen said and rolled her eyes. 

"We know you do Lils." Kathy said.

"I don't." she said stubbornly, then Kathy and Jen turned to each other and said in hushed voices, as if in a hospital "She's in denial." They said, and nodded slightly as though talking someone very stupid, slow and mental and was currently being told that they were going to be locked din to an asylum for the rest of their denied lives. 

Lily laughed "What denial? I just don't like him!" she said and stood up, twisting a loose strand of hair around a finger boredly and glaring at her friends. 

"Riiight" they said and rolled their eyes.

Remus, Sirius, Peter and James came into the common room and then Sirius and Jen said "Can we go to breakfast now?" and then laughed.

[Breakfast]

"Today is going to be fun." Kathy said, eating some egg and bacon and glancing at the other partners in crime. She knew they all felt the same way as her. Excited. Worried. And slightly anxious about the reactions of Lily and James of course, the whole point of this crazy plot anyway. 

"Yup."Jen nodded in agreement. 

.

"Exactly," Sirius said, stuffing some food in his mouth and waving to a group of Ravenclaw girls who nearly fainted and Sirius grinned. 

"What's wrong with you lot? Your acting like you've never been to Hogsmeade!" James said and laughed, feeling slightly suspicious as he eyed all of his friends, who started looking nervous, as though under pressure. 

Remus shook his head and Peter blinked slightly, trying not to look at the eyes of Lily and James. So curious, they seemed. 

Lily added some jam to her toast and took a bite then swallowed and said, "You guys are making me feel like you know something I don't." she said and nodded slightly, raising an eyebrow. What were they hiding? "Please tell me!"

All the people who formed the plan glanced at each other nervously, and then looked away. 

"There's nothing.." Jen said and shrugged.

"Nothing." Remus repeated and nodded, looking away and feeling slightly uncomfortable. He had a huge feeling that something was going to turn out wrong, and he really did not want that to happen between all his friends. He really didn't. Besides, this was made off good spirit, not bad. He sighed slightly and looked at all of his friends again. "Don't worry you guys, we wouldn't hide anything from you if it was that serious anyway." He said reassuringly. 

"Right," James said, raising an eyebrow. Lily rolled her eyes and Kathy smiled nervously.

Peter looked nervous.

Sirius started eating the mountain of food on his plate and noticed everyone looking at him "what?" he said and they all shook their heads exasperatedly. He was never going to learn. 

James blinked and ate some of his food then pushed his plate away looking tired.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, turning towards him. James didn't usually look tired in the morning, rather excited normally, since he always had a lot planned ahead of him for the day. 

"I'm just tired.." he yawned, running a hand through his messy hair. 

She grinned, "okay then, keep in mind never to do History of Magic homework at night," she joked slightly, and he laughed.

Jen laughs, "Its true yeh know!" she said. She always did History of Magic homework at night and ended up falling right asleep. It was weird, really. The topic bored the pants off her, and most of all, she fell asleep in all the classes, and she had the most _weird_ dreams in his class anyway, another reason to dislike it. You were supposed to have good dreams when there was a class that gave you enough time to catch up on your sleep. 

Sirius nodded in agreement as his mouth was stuffed with food.

Remus shook his head and Kathy laughed slightly and put another bite of food in her mouth, glancing around the Great Hall and noticing that it was quieter than usual today. 

Lily, Kathy and James stood up, "Were done, you guys, we'll be waiting for you at the gate." Kathy said. 

They all nodded and followed them out after a few minutes.

"You got the Veriteserum Remus?" Jen asked Remus in a low voice as they walked out of the Great Hall. 

"Yup." He said, reaching inside his robe pocket and pulling it out, wiggling it slightly jokingly and putting it back in his pocket. 

Jen laughed, "Oh this is going to be one long day!" she said.

And they all head off to Hogsmeade after Filch ticked their names off a list. 

Little did they know the problems that would be occurring. 


	5. Chapter 5: The Three Broomsticks

° - The Three Broomsticks - °

Lily and James looked completely, utterly confused as their friends ushered them into The Three Broomsticks as soon as they reached Hogsmeade, all of them chattering amongst themselves excitedly and ignoring the questions from Lily and James, who were now feeling slightly scared of their over-excited friends. Kathy and Jen were each hanging on to Lily's arm's, pulling her through the noise and the crowd of people, a happy air all around them while the boys dragged James behind them. 

"Eh...what's the rush?" Lily said as Sirius and Kathy dragged her into The Three Broomsticks, which was buzzing with Hogwarts students and other witches and wizards, it was also noisy and the air was filled with laughter and endless chatter, and the scraping of chairs against the floor and the high chairs at the bar moving around, and people calling out their orders while some others were entering the shop. It was a typical, noisy day at the Three Broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta was rushing around handing people their drinks. 

"Nothing!" Remus said and smiled as he looked around, waving to some people he knew. 

"Whatever," James said rolling his eyes as he walked in with Jen and Peter, looking extremely irritated at the rush and lack of explanations from his friends who were all acting weird. 

They sat at a table and naturally, everyone made Lily and James sit next to each other. Jen sat next to Remus and glared at him as though saying 'Go get the damn drinks, I cant wait any longer!' Peter then stood up and said "I'll go get the drinks." And he walked over to the counter, looking very, _very _nervous although he was stepping forward to be sorted allover again. Lily was avoiding James slightly, since she was feeling annoyed that their friends were not telling them something, and he was staring at her, then Sirius started distracting everyone by changing Kathy's hair a different color each time he waved his wand, just so they wouldn't look at Peter, because they didn't want Lily and James to see him slipping Veriteserum into one of the butterbeers, well at least not Lily. 

"Ill go get the drinks," Peter said and smiled, then walked over to the counter to order eight butterbeers. He glanced back at the table before pulling the container out of his pocket and emptying it completely into one of the butterbeers, looking slightly nervous. He returned to the table and handed out the drinks, making sure to give Lily the last one on the left as he looked dead nervous, he did not want anyone to get the wrong thing. 

"Why are all of you looking at me??" Lily asked them suspiciously and blinked as they all turned away, except James who was clearly as confused as her, as she stared at her drink. She wished her friends would cut the crap and tell them what was going on. 

Kathy took a sip from her butterbeer and smiled.

Identical, evil, grins formed on the faces of the people who formed the plan as Lily took a long sip from her butterbeer. "Yes!" Jen said and laughed, and Kathy high fived Remus while Peter and Sirius cheered, but their noise was blocked out by the other people in the bar anyway. James blinked. 

Sirius glanced at Lily who looked like she was in a trance, completely out of it. Her eyes were slightly wide open, empty, and her face as set in a straight expression, her mouth in a thin flat line with her hands on the table flatly. She looked as though she had been hypnotized or something. But the way she looked was much more tranced than the way she was supposed to look. They all turned to Peter with looks of worry on their faces. Remus and Jen voiced their thoughts. 

"Peter how many drops did you put in it?" Remus and Jen asked, frowning as Kathy waved a hand in front of Lily's face, calling her name every now and then and flicking her head, in hope of a reaction or something.

"The whole thing," Peter squeaked nervously and Sirius hit his head on the table. 

James looked at them, confusedly and angrily, and then he looked at Lily "Okay, all of you are going to tell me what's going on, right now."

Sirius smiled at James, wondering how he would have felt if it was him who had to be around evil people for so long, "Alright, and alright. You know how Lily will never admit she loves you?" Sirius started casually. 

James raised an eyebrow, "Yes." He said and blinked. _'What does that have to do with anything?!'_

"Well," Jen grinned evilly "We formed a plan, us" she said and nodded. 

"Yep, we decided we couldn't take it anymore, both of you being stubborn, Lily being in denial and all. It was annoying because you two are meant to be!" Kathy said and smiled. 

"So we decided that Lily **_actually_** admitting it is like _Hell freezing over_, catch my drift? Anyway, we decided only one thing would make Lily tell the truth…Veriteserum.." Sirius said and smirked.

"But Peter put the whole container in her drink, so she'll be in a complete trance, and cant say anything but the truth, it'll wear off in an hour." Remus added reassuringly to a worried looking James. 

James grinned, "is she?" he said and pokes Lily gently, and she nearly fell off her chair, he caught her then looked at them "I guess she is.."

"Well, now we have to go back to the common room, we can't do this in front of all these people!" Kathy said and stood up, and all the others did the same, James helping Lily off. She seemed so different when she was in a trance. 

"You do know that you'll be taking me to the Hospital Wing as soon as that stuff wears off, don't you?" James said uneasily. 

"Yep, but we'll be with you, with pink moustaches or something!" Jen grinned and all the others laughed.

[Hogwarts, GCR!]

James walked into the GCR after the portrait door swung open, to be followed by Remus, Kathy, Jen, Peter and Sirius.

"Well, we better leave you and Lily alone now Prongs, you know," Remus said and smiled, then he and Kathy dragged Sirius and Jen away before they could open their mouths to complain, Peter followed them silently. 

"Shhhh!" Remus said as they stopped at the staircase that lead to the boys' dormitories. "We'll spy on them," Kathy said and grinned. "Oooh okay," Jen said and Sirius nodded and they all poked their heads over the edge, looking like criminals while they stared at them. 

James smiled at Lily, "Hola Evans." He said and stared at the beautiful red head sitting in front of him. 

Lily didn't say anything.

"You like me, don't you?" he asked her and grinned arrogantly. He felt weird and fidgeted slightly as he waited for her answer feeling very nervous. 

"I do." Lily said.

Jen and Sirius silently high fived, Remus grinned and Kathy squealed slightly, Peter smiled "Finnallllyy!" he whispered, all of them felt like cheering and dancing around, but they had to maintain their silence for the rest of the time. 

James let out a cheer and started dancing around, and smiled very broadly, "for how long?" he asked and grinned slightly, sitting next to her then getting up again. 

"Fifth year." She answered flatly. 

"I knew it!" James said and laughed, a huge smile still on his face while he stared at the entranced Lily. 

Lily didn't do anything, not even blink, she was completely out of it. James started feeling awkward talking to something that much resembled a robot. Or a dead person. 

"Okay Evans, why don't you say yes when I ask you out?" he asked her slightly annoyed, and stared at her, waiting for an answer patiently. 

"Because your attitude is too much and you think you can get anyone you want," Lily answered.

James glared at her then smiled, "but I changed didn't I?" he asked hopefully. James knew he had changed. He hadn't done it intentionally, well half of it, but he knew, that he changed…

"Yes you did." She said. 

"I know." He said and grinned. 

"Okay im going to ask you again, just to make sure .. do you like me Evans?" he asked her and laughed.

"Yes." She answered, and Sirius fell from the staircase and grinned "I TOLD YOU PRONGS!" he yelled, then yelped as Kathy, Jen, Remus and Peter landed on top of him, since they tripped over his foot. "Heh.." Kathy said nervously. James raised an eyebrow.

But Jen was sitting in front of Lily, smirking "Okay Lils, why have you always turned down every guy that ever asked you out?" Jen asked, she had been dying to find out. 

"Because I sort of liked James, and I wanted nothing to do with other guys because I did not have time." Lily answered, and James smiled, Sirius laughed and Remus grinned, and Kathy laughed too. They knew that Lily had always had feelings for James, and they also knew that she did not like getting in to relationships too much anyway,s ince most of the time, her studies came first.

"I feel guilty." Kathy stated, sitting down. She did feel guilty. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, looking at Lily. 

"Don't!" Jen said, "This is funny ... what else should we ask her??" she said and grinned slightly, standing in front of her best friend. 

Sirius thought of it for a moment then grinned, "'Ey Evans, do you think Prongsie is cute?" he asked and smirked, sitting down next to Lily. He knew the answer was yes. No one thought that James was ugly anyway. Or himself for that matter. 

Lily nodded and everyone burst out laughing.

Then she blinked and Remus looked alarmed "Oh no, I think its worn off!" he said slightly nervously and they all backed up a little. 

Lily suddenly shut her eyes and shook her head, then opened them again and looked around at all of them, and opened her mouth to speak then started remembering everything she just admitted and started screaming like she humiliated. 

"Run!" Jen said, but before they could do anything there was a flash of light and Lily stomped out of the common room, tears streaming down her face and steam coming out of her ears. She was so angry right now. 

Kathy sat up and looked at her hands and noticed that her skin was green.

"Ka-Kathy, you look-!" Jen said and started laughing hysterically, only it didn't sound like laughter. She was snorting.

"Yea well you make the noises!" Kathy said and felt her head and touched a strand of Puke green hair.

"Why do you-?" Jen started to ask the guys but started snorting and grunting, and everyone started laughing, Jen had pink frizzy hair, pink skin, and pig ears and a tail. She was resembling a pig, and if anyone hadn't been watching, they wouldn't have known that it was Jen on the floor.

"She made you a pi-!" Kathy started to say but only made frog noises, and her skin turned to green scales and she had big black eyes, a wide mouth and green hair. She looked like a frog. So Lily felt that Jen was a pig and Kathy was like a frog. Stupid. 

Jen snorted.

Kathy made a frog noise, and the guys were roaring with laughter, nearly rolling around on the floor laughing while the girls stood up looking extremely annoyed..and hideous. 

"Hey, she didn't do anything to us!" Sirius said and grinned slightly, feeling happy. 

Remus shrugged, "I don't know why."

James was still smiling, "why is she angry?"

Remus frowned, "we humiliated her James!" he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and rolled his eyes, feeling guilty just like Kathy, and slowly, Jen. 

Kathy and Jen looked at each other then stood up and started heading to the Hospital Wing.

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus followed the girls then James looked at all of them, "do you think I should go speak to her?"

"No!" Remus said. "She'll kill you."

James nodded.

[Hospital Wing]

Madam Pomfrey was fussing over Jen and Kathy, muttering things about students hexing each other for stupid reasons, and Seventh Years for that matter. She was looking angry and frustrated while she bustled around the hospital wing getting things.

"Here, drink this, both of you" she said and handed them both a cup as she walked back over to them. They took them from her and stared at it. It looked like the most disgusting thing in the world that someone would put in their mouth. 

They both drank it and grimaced.

"Hey my voice is back to normal!" Jen said and sighed with relief as her appearance started to slowly come back as well. "Lily is mad at us, Kathy. She's not going to speak to us." She said slowly, sighing slightly.

"I know," Kathy said uncomfortably, "Man I knew we shouldn't have done this from the start..bloody plan.." she mumbled.

Soon enough, the girls were free to go, both back to normal.

[By The Lake]

Lily sat by the lake, far away from everyone. She wiped a tear away from her face and sniffled slightly. _'How could they do that to me?!'_ she thought furiously, '_They have no idea...I thought they were my friends!'_ she thought and threw a rock in to the lake. She felt so humiliated, and so betrayed. 

She wiped a few more tears away from her face_. 'I mean, its not that I hate James, but I didn't want him to know, well not that way at least...I don't know what's gotten into me lately, I think about him a lot...who would have thought, Potter?! He's become nicer, and more caring I guess, but I don't know why I couldn't admit it to him...maybe because I didn't want him to know that he finally got to me, yes that's it...wow I must be selfish, he's been trying to get me to go out with him for 2 years if not more...ah…this is so complicating'_ she thought and frowned, then pulled a knee up to her chest and rested her head on it.

_''I'm not talking to any of them...not till I get my head sorted! And because I'm angry with them, that was the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me!' _she grumbled as she thought about it and blushed, then stood up and started walking to the castle, noticing it was getting dark, she glanced at a first year and frowned "You there, get inside!" she called to him and to some other second years who were running around. 

She sighed as she slowly walked down on the grounds of Hogwarts and over the large castle. She pushed open the Oak doors gently, and slowly started down the halls, looking around and feeling so many thoughts go in her head. Memories. A feeling about that this was her last year here. She sighed slightly, shaking her head as she walked. 

She turned around the corner and saw Kathy, Jen, and the boys walking into the common room. She glowered and went in after them headed straight to the girls' dormitories, ignoring their calls and pleads for her to come back. It was no use. They heard the dormitory door slam, and they all sighed defeatedly. 

Jen frowned after her, "There, we try and she acts as if were part of the bloody wall!" she said and frowned, chucking a book at a Fourth Year who didn't have anything to do with this. "Don't do that." James warned her and frowned, being Head Boy he had to tell people to watch their actions anyway. 

"Ill go talk to her..." Kathy said and ran into the girls' dormitories, feeling so bad for doing this to Lily. She really didn't want to in the first place anyway…

Kathy went inside and saw Lily getting into her bed. She walked over to her feeling slightly cautious but relaxed a little when she saw that Lily's wand was on the table. 

"Hey Lils." She said and smiled, trying not to act nervous.

Lily ignored her and turned her back to her.

"Lily, talk to me...I know your upset, but..." she said and took a deep breath "we're sorry, we really are." She said, and looked away, hoping Lily would take the apology.

This angered Lily and she sat up in her bed "**YEAH**, IM SURE YOUR ALL _SORRY_, BET YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A REAL LAUGH, ALL OF YOU, ASKING ME QUESTIONS WHILE I WAS IN A TRANCE, OF COURSE, YOU WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO HAVE THE GUY YOU ALWAYS TRIED TO AVOID HEAR YOU SAY YOU LIKED HIM, OH YEAH IM SURE YOUR ALL FEELING **POSITIVLEY** BLOODY **DREADFULL** ABOUT IT, ARENT YOU?! YES OF COURSE, YOU DIDN'T THINK ABOUT ME WHEN YOU WERE MAKING YOUR STUIPED PLAN, YOU DIDN'T THINK IF IT WOULD MAKE ME UPSET OR NOT _DID_ YOU KATHY?!" she yelled and turned around again, pulling the covers over her head, tears of anger burning in her eyes again while she threw something at the wall. 

Kathy stood there, mouth opening and closing. She decided she should leave Lily alone for now and walked back down into the common room, to find all of them sitting there, wide-eyed. She felt so horrible. Why did she agree and let her friends go on with us? She felt bad. So stupid. 

"We heard." Remus finally said, breaking the nasty silence that had filled the air while they all sat.

"You know what, maybe she's right…she's furious, you know. She isn't going to speak to us for a whole week, if not more." Jen said and bit her lip, leaning back on the couch with a frustrated sigh, she did not need this happening. Stupid plan.

"She'll get over it." Peter squeaked and shrugged, standing up and walking around the common room. 

"Yes, I'm sure she will." Sirius added and sighed slightly. 

James frowned and put his head in his hands "This is all my fault, all of it, from the start." He said and moaned slightly, falling backwards on to the couch. 

"Why?" Jen asked and blinked. It was not his fault. 

"Because if I didn't always make a fuss over her, this wouldn't have happened." He pointed out, rather sadly, but no one caught the sadness and frustration in his voice as he put his hands over his face frustratedly. 

"Its **not** your fault James," Remus said firmly.

"Whatever...I'm heading up to bed, good night." He said to all of them and dragged himself to the boys' dormitory, not feeling good about this. Not feeling good at all. 

Kathy sat down on the couch next to Jen, sulking.

"Oh come off it Kathy," Jen said irritably, "She'll come through soon!" she said like it was going to happen and she was sure. Kathy sighed slightly. She wasn't sure that might be right She knew 

"Yeah...maybe." Kathy squeaked.

[A week later]

Lily hadn't spoken to her friends, or the Marauders since the whole incident. Deaf to their calls and yells, blind to their waving, she ignored them completely. Nothing, she didn't even look their way when they called after her endlessly. She wasn't happy that she was, but she was still mad at them for doing that to her. She was so upset. She wished it had never happened in the first place. She would not answer them in class, and would refuse to be partners with them in classes. Even the teachers and some fellow students were surprised by her actions. 

"Come through, eh Jen?" Kathy snapped the in the common room. Her hair was in a very messy bun and she was angry, wringing her hands and muttering things to herself as she stomped around the common room. She hadn't spoken to Lily in a week and it was pissing her off that her friend was so mad at them. 

"I **thought** she would, don't bite my head off Kathy," Jen said and growled, and glared at the floor, she was also getting angry and frustrated and she hated it when people pointed her out wrong "I don't know what she's being such an ass about, all we did was try to help her, I mean she **DID** say she liked him didn't she?! She did say that, and now she's avoiding him, AND us!? I don't understand!" she yelled out angrily, banging her head against a book frustratedly.

Why did Lily have to be such a damn complicated bitch right now?!

"I'm sorry," came a familiar voice from the portrait hole, Jen turned around and Kathy did too. Lily was standing near the Portrait Hole with a small smile on her face. She could not take it any longer; she just had to speak to her friends about it. It had annoyed her os much not be able to talk them for so long. 

"Forgiven!" Kathy said quickly and ran over to hug Lily.

Jen turned around again and didn't do anything. Lily and Kathy looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Lily walked over to Jen and dropped on the couch next to her, smiling slightly. 

" 'Eylo Jenners." She grinned, poking Jen in a friendly way. 

Jen shrugged.

"Alright then, don't laugh for another minute If your actually mad at me." Lily said and nodded, folding her arms across her chest loosely and staring at Jen.

Jen grinned and hugged Lily, "Cow!" she laughed. "Why where you being such a shit for so long Lily?" 

Lily smiled at her friends "Eh...sorry for being a pain and all, I was just mad...and embarrassed" she added and frowned slightly, blushing as she remembered the events of that 'dreaded' night, or so she liked to call it actually. She looked at both of her friends. 

Jen grinned, "I **KNEW** YOU LIKED HIM, I _ALWAYS_ DID!" she yelled and danced around the common room.

Kathy laughed and nodded in agreement, "why couldn't you confess the easy way Lils?" she asked and raised an eyebrow, leaning back in the squashy arm chair she was sitting me. 

Lily blushed, "Argh go away…because Potter thought he could have EVERY SINGLE girl he wanted, so I didn't want to be one of those girls he would go out with for a week then dump, no, not me. I don't want to be like that. Even if I do like him, I'm not stupid" she complained, sounding slightly hurt. 

Kathy shook her head. "You know he would **N-E-V-E-R** do that to you, he thinks you're a Goddess or something!" she said exasperatedly to Lily, who was being slow in her opinion at the moment. Could she not see that James was prepared to dive off the Astronomy Tower for her in order to gain her love? Why did she have to be so damn stupid?!

Jen popped up from behind them, "Yup Lils, he lurves you!" she sang annoyingly. 

Lily blushed again and poked Jen, "Shut up Jen, he doesn't love me!" she said and frowned, sitting back on the couch with her legs crossed, her dark red hair in a high, messy ponytail. Her emerald green eyes had a far away look in them as she heard the portrait hole open. 

"Yes I do!" James said and grinned, as the portrait hole closed after him. "Who told ya I didn't Lily?" he asked and stuck his tongue out. 

Sirius came in moments after him and knocked him over, out of the way, frowning with a dramatic kind of look on his face.

"**Lillian**, dear girl! OF **COURSE** PRONGSIE _LOVES_ YOU, OLD GIRL!" he grinned, "You should hear him talk about you, woman!" he smirked, "He thinks your absolutely gorgeous, and he's had a crush on you since he saw you, and he wants to go out with you, and marry you and have a son named.." but Sirius never got to finish his sentence, a scarlet with embarrassment James had clamped a hand over his mouth and was dragging him to the boys dormitories, as Sirius tried to kick him off, it was obvious he was laughing hysterically and James was glowering, red with embarrassment while Sirius tried to fight him off frantically. 

Jen and Kathy were rolling around on the floor, roaring with laughter and Lily had turned even redder than her hair. Was that true? Sirius would not make all of that up for one of James' regular girlfriends. 

"Ca-can we come to your wedding, Lils?!" Jen said, still laughing slightly as she wiped the tears off her eyes. 

"Nonsense, I'm not marrying Potter!" she snapped irritatedly at her friends' slowness. When would they just shut up about it? 

"Yes you are!" Kathy said, and then she and Jen started humming a wedding tune.

Lily groaned and stomped into the girls' dormitories. 

[The Next morning - Monday]

"JENNIFER ESMERALDA CARMEN ANASTACIA GRISDALE, GET UP THIS INSTANT!" a very annoyed Lily yelled and walloped Jen with a pillow over and over again, yelling things at her to try and wake her up. They had waited on her for so long, that the other girls in the dorm were already out. "Bye!" Mel Faux called to them and ran to catch up with her twin. 

"Fine fine!" Jen grumbled as she fell off her bed, "getting violent, arentcha Lils?" she grumbled and tried to untangle herself from her bed sheets, very lazily and slowly although she knew it was okay for her to take her time and not even bother that they were going to be late for class. 

Lily pursed her lips and looked at Kathy "Watch this," she mumbled in her ear then cleared her throat "HEY JEN, WERE LATE FOR BREAKFAST!" Lily yelled and smirked

"OH NO!" Jen gasped and got dressed as fast as she could then ran out of the girls dormitories and out of the common room, forgetting to brush her long, (tangled) curls as she sped off before Lily and Kathy, half-joking of course. But she seriously did not want to miss breakfast, and that was for sure. 

Lily and Kathy raised their eyebrows, gathered their things and set off after her, laughing loudly. 

Jen was sitting at the table, hurriedly eating breakfast; there were few students in the hall, as everyone was now getting to class. Lily and Kathy sat down and ate quickly, then got up and dragged Jen out of the Great Hall.

"C'mon Jen were late for Transfiguration!" Lily groaned. "We're supposed to be transfiguring the tables into rabbits today, lets go I don't want to miss this, because I'm positive it will be on our N.E.W.T's and I don't want to fail, I've told you before, you two slackers! Now LETS GO!" she bellowed and Jen got up. 

Kathy followed, and then Jen did. 

[Transfiguration Class]

"Ah I cant get it right!" Jen mumbled, practically killing the rabbit with her wand, poking and whacking it with her wand repeatedly. 

"For _heavens_ sake, Jen, you changed the table into a rabbit, now change it back!!" Lily frowned, "its not that difficult!" she said as she turned her concentration back to her own rabbit and said the spell loudly, but mis-pronounced a word and—

**BOOM**!

Lily stood there, and blinked, covered in black dust and there were burns in her robes, and she had a table with rabbit fur and spots on it.

James walked over, laughing hysterically.

"What do you want now Potter?" she snapped impatiently as she pointed her wand to herself and cleared herself off then pointed her wand at the mess she made and changed it back.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?" he joked.

"No." she said and started gathering her books as everyone in the class started heading out as the bell rang.

"Evans, I know you like me!!" he said and grinned. He didn't really mean it, he was just annoying her. 

"I DON'T!" she bellowed, irritated and ran out of the class.

James sighed "What is it with her?!" he asked angrily, and frustratedly, almost to himself.

Remus appeared next to James, and sighed slightly, shaking his head. "James, if you want Lily to say yes to you then you have to change a little bit...and stop calling her Evans, it annoys her. I have hear dyou call her Lily before, stick to that. And stop joking around with her and being annoying" He added and nodded.

"CHANGE?!" James spat, "Have I not changed enough for her?" he said and angrily and kicked the wall.

"Well," Sirius said and grinned "According to my **'calculations'**, Prongsie m'boy, you _HAVE_ changed for her, allot!"

"I'm serious," he said and frowned.

"No your not!" Sirius said and frowned in a confused way "you are JAMES, and IM Sirius…" he started. 

"Shut up Sirius, there is no time for your stupidity now." Remus snapped then turned to James. "Just take it easy with her, she was very embarrassed, you know." He explained and sighed slightly. 

"Right." James sighed and walked out of the class.

"Now, where's Snivellus?!" Sirius called as he ran after James, Remus frowned and ran after them.

[Lunch]

"Lily, we know, they know, and YOU know you like him, so say yes to him." Jen said.

"C'mon Lils, look at him, he's miserable!" Kathy said and pointed at James, who was at the other end of the table. James was sitting with his elbow on the table, his head propped up with his hand, and he was poking his mashed potatoes with his fork, in his other hand.

Lily growled and started eating very hastily to avoid answering her annoying friends. 

"Now, tell us why you wont say yes to him!" Jen prompted, smiling. 

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" Kathy started loudly.

"Fine," she said angrily. "I'm afraid of having a relationship, because I don't want to hurt him, and I'm not ready to go out with him for a week then get dumped, happy?! I just don't want either of those things to happen, and there is nothing you guys can do to change that, alright, so why don't you just drop it!" she snapped, stood up and ran out of the Great Hall.

Jen turned to Kathy and blinked, Kathy looked as confused as she did. "She thinks he's going to dump her after a week…" Jen said. "And she thinks she is going to hurt him." Kathy finished and sighed slightly. Lily had issues. 

"SO THAT'S WHY!" Kathy yelled and slammed her fist on the table and glared at all the Fifth years who gave her odd looks. 

[Meanwhile, at the other end of the table…]

"I mean, its not like I'm going to leave her after a week or something!" James grumbled and killed his food. He would never, ever do that to lily! He would not even dream it. **No. Way. **He loved her, and he would rather die instead of do that. Didn't she know that he would do anything for, and that was meant as in anything. 

"I know you wont." Remus said, "Because you really like Lily." He said and nodded. "Right," Sirius pointed out, raising his eyebrows as though trying to convince James. 

"Love." James corrected, "I love bloody Evans, and she wont even give me a chance." He cried and hit his head on the table while Remus and Sirius exchanged looks and patted him on the head. 

"I don't know what you see in that girl, Prongs, I mean I think she's a bit off her rocker…with the anger and everything else!" he frowned. He thought Lily had an anger management problem, but hey, most people did. Or not. He didn't really mean what he said, but he hated seeing James like this over a girl. 

James gave him a death glare. "There's nothing wrong with Lily!" he said.

"Sirius." Remus warned. He sighed. 

"Fine...I'm going to ask Kathy and Jen why Evans is being evil." Sirius said, and stood up then started towards Jen and Kathy at the other end of the table.

"Hi." He said and grinned, and sat between them with the most adorable look on his face. 

"Erm...hello." Jen said and raised an eyebrow at the way he was smiling. "Alright, what do you want?" she asked and rolled her eyes at him. 

Kathy grinned. Here we go. 

"Me? Oh I don't want anything, I just felt like saying hello to you." He said, the charming smile plastered on his handsome face.

Jen narrowed her dark gray eyes at him "And I'm a monkey, spill it. What do you want?" she asked impatiently and punched his shoulder lightly. 

"Why does Evans hate James even after she confessed she liked him, I mean it's bit confusing, isn't it?" he frowned.

"We know why!" Kathy said.

"She has this theory in her head that James will dump her after a week, just like most of the other girls he used to date…and she said she didn't want to hurt him.." Jen said. "Do we HAVE to make another plan for this?" she mumbled to herself. She sighed slightly and shook her head. 

"YES!" Sirius grinned "I HAVE GOT A PLAN!"

"Oh no.." Kathy mumbled.

"OH YEAH!" Jen cheered and looked at Sirius "Tell tell!" she said and looked at him patiently. 

"Maybe we should tell both of them to meet us at the garders at ten, then we hide in that big tree…and we watch...Evans will either slap him, or snog him." Sirius informed them.

"B-but she'll kill us!" Kathy sputtered. NO WAY!

"Shut up Kath!" Jen said impatiently and turned back to Sirius.

"I have a feeling this WONT be good." Kathy said, feeling that I wont be good, oh no it wont, it was going to be far, faaar from that if anything. 

"Yeah yeah yeah," Jen said, waving her hand impatiently and waiting for Sirius to go on. 

"So are you in or out?" Sirius grinned.

"IN!" Kathy grumbled.

"I'm gonna tell the guys, James just left!" Sirius smiled and ran over to Peter and Remus, and Kathy and Jen could see him talking to the excitedly. 

" She won't like this." Kathy frowned.

"Yes, but its not like she'll stop talking to us!" Jen said. "And, who said that she had to know it was us?" Jen smirked and shrugged slightly. It was true. If no one was gonna tell her, how was she to know?

"Mental.." Kathy muttered, shaking her head and standing up.

"Where to?" Jen asked.

"Common room..I want to get something before Divination." Kathy answered and hurried off.

Jen shrugged and continued with her food.

At the other end of the table, Sirius, Remus and Peter were making plans very quietly, in low voices so no one else could hear them, "….yes, we'll tell him we want to meet him there to plan a prank!" Sirus said and grinned "And I don't know what the girls are telling Lily…eh..Prongs will be mad if she slaps him..but ohwell..it could turn out the other way, you know, I mean she DOES like him after all." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Yes, yes I know." Remus said and nodded "But we just cant let them see us in that tree, so im using the Disillusionment Charm again, alright?" he asked Peter and Sirius.

"Right." Sirius and Peter said.

"Maybe we could make James' trousers come off..that would be funny!" Sirius said and grinned evilly.

"NO!" Remus said firmly "sometimes, you act like an eleven year old instead of a 17 year old, Sirius."

Sirius pouted "I do not."

Then a loud, Kathy-like scream came from the Entrance Hall.


	6. Chapter 6: Peeves and Evil Beings

° - Flashbacks and Boredom - °  
  
Jen froze as she heard the scream which was scarily like Kathy's scream and her eyes got wide. She dropped the fork she was holding and ran out of the Great Hall as fast as she could, 'Oh I hope she's ok!' she thought getting a sick feeling.  
  
"Kathy?!" She yelled loudly and turned, then ran to the stairs of the Entrance Halls and looked around wildly. A figure sitting at the bottom of the steps caught her eye; there was Kathy. She was sitting on the ground, positively fuming.  
  
"Kathy!" Jen exclaimed, thundered down the stairs and hugged Kathy so tight she couldn't even breathe.  
  
"Jen!" she chocked out. "Lemme go, Jen..."  
  
"Oh, sorry." She said and let go. "What happened to you? Are you ok? Should someone go get Madam Pomfrey?" she said and looked at Kathy quickly to see if anything happened to her.  
  
"Peeves." She mumbled and looked even angrier, "Bloody Peeves."  
  
"What?" Jen said dumbly, brushing aside her hair and frowning slightly. "What's Peeves go to do with you screaming.and what are you doing at the bottom of the steps?"  
  
"Peeves." Kathy repeated. "He pushed me down the last 5 steps of the stairs. Idiot..."  
  
Jen sighed with relief and laughed slightly, "Oh if that's what happened."  
  
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Kathy yelled.  
  
This made Jen laugh even harder, "Yes it is!" she managed to say. "It's just Peeves, Kath! Damn you, I thought something serious had happened to you!"  
  
"I heard my name!" Sirius said and grinned, appearing at the top of the stairs with Peter and Remus.  
  
"We weren't talking about you," Kathy informed him and frowned, looking very angry still.  
  
"Peeves pushed her down the last 5 steps of the stairs." Jen said and started laughing again.  
  
Remus frowned, "Idiot."  
  
Peter and Sirius were laughing.  
  
"It's not funny!" Kathy said and stood up, snatching her bag up with her.  
  
"Oh, shoot, we're late for Divination!" Remus said and took off down the hall, followed by the others.  
  
[Divination]  
  
Remus, Sirius, Jen, Kathy and Peter stumbled into the Divination class, all panting slightly, and took their usual seats. Kathy and Jen sat at a table with Lily, and the Marauders sat together. Lily and James shot their friends quizzical looks.  
  
"Peeves pushed Kathy down the stairs, she screamed, I found her and I laughed after she told me what happened. And she's still mad." Jen whispered to Lily.  
  
Lily grinned, "Don't worry. She's Kathy, she'll be in her cheerful mode in a few minutes."  
  
And she was right.  
  
"Okay, Lily, tell me what you see," Jen said and grinned, glancing at the crystal ball in front of her.  
  
"Err...uh.I see a hooded man..." she said a bit uncomfortably. "And a little baby...and me..." she said, looking into the crystal ball, which showed a hooded man, herself, and she was holding a little, black-haired little boy in her arms. She was panicking.  
  
"Riiiight...how'd you come up with this one, Lily?" Kathy mused.  
  
"No, no...I see that..." Lily said and looked rather upset.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Jen asked and peered at the crystal ball.  
  
"It's just that...I look older...and panicked..." Lily said, then shook her head as the images disappeared from the crystal ball. "I...never mind..." she said. She didn't feel like discussing this with her friends and was relieved when the bell rang.  
  
"Finally!" Jen said as she reached the bottom of the stepladder where Lily and Kathy were waiting for her.  
  
"Yep, lets go to Care of Magical Creatures, we don't want to be late." Lily frowned and started dragging her friends down North Tower all the way outside to where they were taking the class. Professor Kettleburn and the Slytherins were waiting for the Gryffindors there.  
  
"Oh no..." Kathy muttered to Jen and Lily, nudging both of them and glancing over at two groups of people.  
  
Lily looked up and over at the people Kathy was motioning to. It was a group of Slytherins, a slender blonde girl she thought, but wasn't sure, was Narcissa Black, a boy with silver blond hair, Lucius Malfoy; there was Severus Snape with them and two boys she didn't know. The blonde girl, Narcissa, seemed to be telling the others not to cause any trouble by the look on her face.  
  
The other group was the Marauders.  
  
"Oh no." Lily said and walked over to the Marauders, James and Sirius mainly. "Don't start." She said in a low voice.  
  
"We weren't going to," James protested. Sirius nodded and gave her the most innocent smile he had.  
  
"Right." Lily said and glared from one to another suspiciously. "Professor Kettleburn said what we're taking this lesson is bound to come in our N.E.W.T.'s, so don't mess this up," she said, and stalked back to her friends.  
  
Sirius shook his head and James stared at her dreamily before his friends dragged him over to where Professor. K (A/N: I'M LAZY! Leave me alone ._.) and everyone else was gathered around some creatures, which resembled a cross between a monkey and a frog. They had a wide, grinning mouth and short horns, long arms, webbed hands and feet with a large pustule on their forehead.  
  
"Good afternoon, class," the teacher said in a loud voice. "Today we will be learning about Clabberts." He announced looking around at the class. (A/N: I did not make this thing up, I found it on a website...lol...) "Now, Clabberts are very rare creatures, there aren't many of them, and they are pretty hard to find, that's why there aren't many here today. So, Clabberts can sense the approach of danger, included Muggles, and you can tell when it has sensed danger because the large pustule on its forehead flashes red when it does. Clabberts move very gracefully, and they are quick, so they can go from place to place quickly without being heard or making any noises. They are also quite mischievous and the horns on their head CAN be poisonous," he said and then looked around at the alarmed faces of the class "Don't worry, the ones we've got here aren't poisonous! And after you've written down what I just said about them, I want all of you to try and pet them, and they don't let disloyal people pet them most of the time, so if they don't let you pet them, step back because they can attack."  
  
Lily put down her quill, and stood up, walking over to the Clabberts nervously.  
  
"Go on," the Professor said and smiled encouragingly at her.  
  
Lily put a foot apart from her and one of them, and reached her hand out to one and pet its head. She smiled and got a little closer to examine them better.  
  
Moments later the rest of the class had come to pet them.  
  
Kathy squealed and jumped back as one of them moved forward.  
  
"Oh get a grip Kathy," Jen said and frowned as she pet one of them. Kathy took little steps towards one and pet it twice, before Jen dragged her closer impatiently.  
  
James stepped over to one and reached out for it, then pet it and smiled, then Sirius and Remus tried. When Peter came to try, the Clabbert looked angry and didn't let him. Peter looked nervous and quickly stepped back. Remus, Sirius and James all looked at him quizzically and he shrugged nervously.  
  
"Oh well..." Sirius said and smiled. "We know you're not disloyal Pete."  
  
"Yeah." James and Remus said. Peter smiled. (A/N:*goes mad* it took me a lot of nerves to put that! X_X)  
  
Lucius Malfoy tried to touch one, and when it didn't let him, he kicked it.  
  
The reaction from the Clabbert wasn't nice.  
  
Lucius cried out in surprise as the Clabbert jumped at him and tried to hit him, but Professor K got the Clabbert off just in time.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, I said you were to step back, not kick the Clabbert!" the Professor said furiously as Narcissa helped Lucius stand up, she was slightly irked because the Clabbert had not let her pet it either. Severus was petting the Clabbert but stopped when it attacked Lucius. Sirius, Peter, and James were laughing hysterically at him as Remus was making more notes.  
  
Lily saw them and rolled her eyes before turning back to Kathy and Jen, shaking her head slightly.  
  
Jen punched Lily's arm lightly. "Lily, you have to admit it was funny. Lucius IS an idiot. And Kettleburn DID tell us to just step back." She said and frowned.  
  
"Yes, but...never mind." she said.  
  
"When are you going to give him a chance?" Kathy asked softly.  
  
"I don't want to!" Lily said as she picked up her stuff and stomped into the castle as the Professor dismissed them.  
  
James and Peter went into the castle before Remus and Sirius, who caught up with Jen and Kathy to talk about their plan.  
  
"So it's tonight?" Sirius asked the others, looking at all of them as Remus checked to see if anyone was eavesdropping on them.  
  
Jen frowned in thought. "No." she said.  
  
"And why not?" Kathy said and Remus turned around.  
  
"Because we have to double check and make sure everything works just as planned." Remus answered for Jen.  
  
"But...ah...never mind." Sirius said. "So what time tomorrow then?" he asked and bent down to tie his shoelaces.  
  
"Hmmm...say 11:30...?" Jen said.  
  
"Right, no one will be out then." Kathy said and nodded.  
  
"Agreed then, tomorrow at 11:30." Remus said and the others nodded.  
  
"What are you telling Lily?" Sirius asked Jen and Kathy as they walked into the castle.  
  
"That we fancied having a chat outside?" Kathy said lamely.  
  
"No." Jen said. "That we want to show her something really important. And we have to act all serious about it."  
  
"Yup, act all Sirius about it," Sirius said and snickered, and everyone rolled their eyes as they went their own way.  
  
[After the last class of the day]  
  
"Finally!" Jen said as the bell for the final class of the day rang. She gathered her things and ran out of the class, then waited for Lily and Kathy to come out. Kathy yawned slightly and nudged Lily to look at James who was staring at her. Again. Lily looked over and he turned away quickly, blushing.  
  
"Potter is showing human emotions, its scary!" Lily whispered to her friends.  
  
Kathy snorted with laughter at this, but Jen frowned. "Lily you're being thick. We KNOW, you like him, you admitted it!"  
  
"I said I like him, but that doesn't mean I have to go out with him!" she said and blushed.  
  
"Eh, she's blushing!" Kathy said and poked Lily, "You are in denial, dear"  
  
"I am not!" Lily shot.  
  
"You are too!" Jen said.  
  
This went on all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room.  
  
[Gryffindor Common Room - Saturday]  
  
"I-AM-NOOOT!" Lily bellowed, and stomped over to her favorite couch by the fire.  
  
Jen was howling with laughter, "Yes, you are, you are, you are!" she said in a singsong voice, she LOVED annoying Lily about James.  
  
"Funny, Jen." Lily said, narrowing her eyes.  
  
Kathy rolled her eyes and stood up "Well, I'm off to bed, Night." She yawned and started walking towards the girl's dorms lazily.  
  
Jen now stopped laughing and had a serious expression on her face. "Lily, you can't do this to James, you know that?" she said and frowned, getting herself off the ground and onto the couch, still looking serious.  
  
"Do what?" Lily asked, confused.  
  
"Lily! You confessed that you liked him allot, and you're being mean to him! I don't think you are being fair at all for that matter!" Jen said.  
  
There was silence before Lily sighed and said, "I...I just don't know, I mean I can't really just agree to go out with him. I just know that he wants to add a name to the list of girls he's snogged..." she turned away from Jen and stared into the fire, an odd look on her face.  
  
"Its pretty obvious he won't do that, Lily." Said Sirius's voice from the portrait hole, and surprisingly, there was no James with him.  
  
"You!" Lily said and jumped slightly. "For how long have you been standing there?" she demanded and glared at him.  
  
He shrugged, "Not sure."  
  
"Listen, I don't care if you run off and tell James what I just said, but if you do." she said and narrowed her eyes "Beware" she said in a dangerous voice and stomped into the girls dorms.  
  
Jen and Sirius looked at each other, then shrugged.  
  
"Well, that went well." Jen said. Sirius grinned, "Did you tell Lily about tomorrow night?"  
  
Jen shook her head "No were going to tell her to meet us under that tree by the lake at the time we decided tomorrow. She might get suspicious if we tell her now." She said and shrugged. "Well, I mean, knowing Lily, it wouldn't take her lots to find out and all...AND Sirius, this is going to be your fault if anything goes wrong!" she added at the end.  
  
"Why is it my fault Grisdale?!!" he said and frowned.  
  
To make it even more annoying for him, she was laughing.  
  
"Right, what's so funny?" he snapped.  
  
"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" she said and ran into the girls dorms, still laughing.  
  
"Girls..." Sirius grumbled "Evil beings..."  
  
[In The Common Room The Next Morning]  
  
Lily walked down from the girls dorms, and sat down on the armchair by the window, yawning loudly. It felt weird to be the first one in the common room in the morning because it was awfully quiet, unlike usually where there would be laughter, chatter and yells filling the quietness. And people filling the emptiness. She sighed lightly and smiled as she leaned back in the large, squashy armchair and raised both legs under her on the armchair. She fiddled with her hair for a while before she heard someone laugh in the corner of the common room, with a devilish look on his or her face.  
  
"James?" she asked and blinked as she noticed a gleam from his glasses in the sun then stood up and walked over to him, "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Nothing!" he said quickly and stuffed an old piece of parchment in his pocket.  
  
"What is that?" she asked curiously and raised an eyebrow at James narrowing her eyes slightly holding his gaze so he couldn't lie to her.  
  
"Nothing." He repeated and tried to look away from her eyes.  
  
She took a step forward, still giving him that look. "I know it's SOMETHING."  
  
He took a step back and noticed there was no more backing up, he was stuck on the wall with Lily standing so close it was scary, but she was so busy staring at his eyes suspiciously to notice this.  
  
"HEY EVANS, PRONGS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" came a bark-like laugh and Sirius appeared in the common room. They turned their heads around to look at who was talking, well James already knew because of the laugh, but Lily wasn't sure.  
  
"Nothing!" James said.  
  
"Nothing!" Lily said and noticed how close she was standing to James and jumped back blushing slightly. "I was just trying to get James to show me this old piece of parchment he stuffed in his pocket as soon as I saw," she said and glared darkly at James.  
  
Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Whatever."  
  
James smiled nervously and slipped past her and over to Sirius "Padfoot, she wanted me to show her our map!" He whispered to him.  
  
Sirius started to look nervous as well "Well, go put it in your trunk then!!" he whispered back impatiently.  
  
"HELLO! IM STILL HERE!" Lily yelled and frowned angrily.  
  
"Sorry," Sirius said and grinned.  
  
"Hi everyone!" Kathy said cheerfully and walked into the common room.  
  
"Hallo Kath." Lily said and smiled at one of her best friends, forgetting James and his map for a moment "Where's Jennifer?"  
  
"ITS JEN! NOT JENNIFER!" came Jens grumpy, why-did-you-wake-me-up-now 'morning' voice as she stumbled down the stairs, her eyes still half closed. She walked into Lily then into Sirius before Kathy rolled her eyes and sighed, then grabbed her arm and made her stand up straight next to her.  
  
"Don't walk." She said to Jen like she was talking to an idiot and frowned slightly the way her mother did when she was fussing over something.  
  
"Kathy your mum does that a lot, you know." Jen said and grinned, trying to push Kathy off.  
  
"Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go people!" Sirius said and frowned "Breakfast ain't gonna be here forever, you know."  
  
"Git." Lily muttered and turned her head to see who had come out of their dorms. James, Peter and Remus were arguing on how to shut Sirius up about breakfast.  
  
With that, they all moved out of the common room and started down the halls and the stairs, heading off to breakfast. 


	7. Chapter 7: Flashbacks and The Garden

[6:30 PM]  
  
Everyone was sitting around the common room, impatiently waiting for 10:45 to roll by. Peter was sitting on the ground, watching Jen make her hair into a zillion little braids with interest, before she let him do the other half of her curls for her after she taught him how. Remus was reading his Defence Against the Dark Arts book and making notes. James was staring at Lily who was glaring at him, and Sirius was joking with Kathy about things they should do to the Slytherins. Lily shot them evil looks from time to time.  
  
"Ah.what do we do now?" Lily finally said, "I'm going mad!"  
  
"Wanna go for a walk?" James said hopefully and grinned.  
  
"No." she snapped and he frowned, sinking back in his armchair, muttering things. She rolled her eyes and looked at the others. "Well?"  
  
"I have an idea!" Kathy said "Why don't we all meet in the gardens at 11:30, tonight?"  
  
"Sure!" Jen said before yelping and scolding Peter for pulling one of her strands too tight as he recoiled slightly from her then went back to helping her, "Sounds good." He said to Kathy.  
  
"Okay." Sirius said and shrugged, trying to contain an evil grin that was threatening to pop on to his handsome face any moment now.  
  
James raised an eyebrow "Why 11:30?"  
  
"Because we're all sitting 'round here like losers on Saturday, and we need to do something, that's a little risky Prongs!" Sirius frowned.  
  
"Fine." James grumbled.  
  
"Ok I guess." Lily said. "It's kind of weird, but, okay."  
  
Remus nodded from behind his book.  
  
"Great," Kathy said and beamed around at all of them.  
  
"But what do we do NOW?" James said, "I'm going to die."  
  
"Really?" Lily said hopefully, but it was really obvious she was joking.  
  
James cracked a grin "Hey, Lily, doesn't that remind you of how we met?" he said, sniggering slightly.  
  
"Ooh, it does!" she said and giggled slightly.  
  
*Flashback*  
  
11-year old Lily Evans glared at James Potter darkly. She got stuck on the same boat ride to Hogwarts with him and she wasn't happy.  
  
He glared right back at her "What do you want Evans?"  
  
"DROWN!" she muttered and pushed him out of the boat, smiling at her accomplishment.  
  
"Ahhhhhh I think I'm going to drown!" he said, but he was half joking, because he was laughing slightly.  
  
"Really?" Lily said hopefully "Will you please?"  
  
"No!" he snapped as he rolled in to the boat again, his glasses halfway down his nose and he was soaking wet. But his hair remained messy.  
  
"Butthead." she said, nearly to herself.  
  
"Shut up Carrot." he smirked.  
  
"Four-eyes!" she shot at him, turning red with anger.  
  
"Shorty!" he snapped and glared  
  
"Pot-head," she shouted.  
  
"Loser!" he sneered.  
  
"IGNORANT!" she yelled and pushed him out of the boat again, and this time he pulled her out with him.  
  
"AHHHH YOU PIG!" she roared and literally tried to drown him before they both got back into the boat.  
  
*End Flashback*  
  
"Yep, that's what happened." Lily said and laughed. She was telling her friends what happened.  
  
Jen was laughing really loud, nearly forgetting Peter who was telling her to sit still.  
  
Kathy was grinning and Sirius was howling with laughter "Pot-head." he said hysterically "that's a new one, Evans!" he smirked.  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow at Sirius "Shut up Black."  
  
James glared at Lily "Its not even funny =_=."  
  
"Yes it is!" she said.  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES, YES, YES!"  
  
"FINE!" he snapped. Lily and James turned to find all the other staring at them.  
  
"Wow, they really are meant for each other," Jen said seriously, and Peter nodded, grinning.  
  
"It's what we've told them for the past six years." Kathy sighed.  
  
"I know." Remus said. "Hey Prongs, remember when you told us you fancy Evans?" Sirius said and was smacked by both Lily and James. "It was second year!" he laughed and everyone else did too, except Lily and James.  
  
"I remember how all of us met. Well Lily and James knew each other already, because they're meant to be" Jen sniggered and got smacked by Lily; James on the other hand grinned.  
  
*Flashback*  
  
"What do we do today?" first - year Kathy wailed.  
  
"Shut up prat." Jen said, she was thinking.  
  
"Be nice." Lily said and frowned as she and her friends walked to the Gryffindor Common Room, only to be stopped by James and the other Marauders.  
  
"Potter." Lily said coldly.  
  
"Evans." He said, just as coldly.  
  
"I'M BLACK!" Sirius said and grinned widely, then the grin faded off his face as all the others stared at him.  
  
"Black who?" Kathy said and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Sirius Black, aren't you?" Jen said and frowned at him, "The butthead who threw mash potatoes today at me at dinner?"  
  
"BUTTHEAD?! I'm not butthead, darling." He smirked. Remus held back his laughter. "I'm Remus Lupin..."  
  
"I'm Kathy, and this is Jen." Kathy said and smiled, a bit air-headedly as if she didn't know she wasn't supposed to be nice.  
  
"And I'm Peter," Peter squeaked and stepped back.  
  
Lily glared at James "Take your goons and get out of the way, Potter."  
  
"What if I don't want to?" James said and grinned cockily.  
  
"Move it." Kathy said.  
  
"What if he doesn't want to?" Sirius said and smirked.  
  
"Don't make me push your pretty boy." Jen said and glared at him.  
  
"I dare you!" Peter squeaked at her.  
  
"Fine." She said and pushed Sirius out of the way.  
  
"HEY!" Sirius yelled as he fell and James helped him up. Remus and Peter moved out of the way and Lily and the girls walked away, laughing.  
  
"He's thicker than my ex-boyfriend, and that's really thick!" Jen's voice could be heard down the hall.  
  
*End Flashback*  
  
"Ooooh, its 11:00, we should go now!" Kathy said and stood up. All the others stood up, except Lily and James.  
  
"Er, I'll follow you guys in a bit, I need to do my Charms homework really quickly." Lily said.  
  
"I have to brush my hair." James said and ran into the boys dorms.  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow and turned to see that the others had already left.  
  
[15 minutes later]  
  
"GET OFF MY FOOT GRISDALE!" Sirius nearly shouted. He, Jen, Kathy, Remus and Peter were sitting in a small tree in the garden, waiting for Lily and James to show up. The garden looked beautiful, it was full of roses and nice looking plants. The moon was shining brightly (it's not a full moon btw!) and everything looked magnificent. There was a path between rose beds and trees, and all of it lead to the place where they took Herbology.  
  
"Shut up Black, it's not my fault!" Jen hissed.  
  
"Shut up, you IDIOTS!" Peter said, putting emphasis on the word 'Idiots'.  
  
A sigh could be heard from Remus and Kathy, who shook their heads.  
  
"How much longerrrr?" Kathy whined.  
  
"Relax, they're going to show." Jen snapped.  
  
Sirius snorted, "Yeah.I hope so...OW!" he frowned; Jen and Remus had poked him in the ribs at the same time. James and Lily were walking towards the garden. Suddenly all of them were quiet, really quiet. Remus had put a silencing charm on all of them the second he saw Lily and James.  
  
"Where are they?" Lily asked, but she was looking around with admiration on her face. She loved the way the garden looked, she had never seen it at this time of day and it looked great in her opinion.  
  
"I dunno." James shrugged, his hands stuffed in his pockets.  
  
Lily sat down on the path and James sat down facing her.  
  
They looked around for a while before Lily turned to James and looked at his face, "What do you want from me?" she asked and stood up, not looking at him.  
  
James stood up too turned to look at her, looking slightly confused, "What do you mean?"  
  
"All these years, asking me out and everything...do you just want another name on the list?" Lily asked quietly, looking away from him  
  
When Lily looked back at him, James looked hurt and angry.  
  
"How could you even think that?" he sputtered.  
  
"Well, you never really cared about any girl you've ever gone out with, it was just for fun, wasn't it?" she retorted.  
  
"Yeah, what if it was then?" James said in a slightly sardonic way, a mean smile on his face, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. He was being sardonic because he was angry. For so many years, asking her out and telling her he cared, and she still wouldn't buy it.  
  
"YOU ARE THE MOST INSENSITIVE GIT I HAVE EVER, AND WILL EVER MEET, POTTER! YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR ANYONE OR ANYTHING, AND YOU'RE SO FULL OF YOURSELF IT'S SICKENING!" she exploded.  
  
James was still angry, and he wanted to annoy her, "I know." He smirked and nodded; it was a fast nod, a sarcastic one.  
  
SLAP.  
  
James looked shocked; there was a dark red, painful looking handprint on the side of his face.  
  
Lily was looking angrier than he had ever, ever seen her. Her face was red, real red and she was glaring daggers at him.  
  
"HAVE YOU BEEN JUST TRYING TO GET ME TO GO OUT WITH YOU WITH THAT ACT, DID YOU JUST PRETEND TO ACTUALLY CHANGE AND BECOME A HUMAN WITH EMOTIONS?!"  
  
"I DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING I SAID!" he roared, getting angry as well. "YOU ARE SO STUIPED LILY! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOU TO GO OUT WITH ME FOR YEARS, YEARS LILY! I ONLY WENT OUT WITH OTHER GIRLS DURING THAT TIME SO I WOULDN'T FEEL LONELY, AND I CHANGED, I CHANGED THIS YEAR, JUST FOR YOU, JUST SO YOU COULD GO OUT WITH ME, JUST SO YOU COULD GIVE ME A CHANGE, AND THEN YOU JUST ACCUSE ME OF TRYING TO GET ANOTHER NAME ON THE LIST! I DON'T UNDERSTAND, YOU SAID YOU LIKED ME!" he shouted.  
  
Instead of looking shocked, Lily looked angry, "I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO CHANGE! YOU KNOW WHAT, I HATE YOU!" she yelled to a shocked looking James, hot tears springing to her eyes. She didn't mean it, but she thought they would argue all the time if she actually told him she would give him a chance. And before she could control herself, she yelled "I HATE YOU, WHY DON'T YOU GO.GO.CURL UP IN A BALL AND DIE, POTTER!" she shouted and clapped a hand over her mouth as soon as the words left her mouth. "No...James...I didn't mean...I." she said shakily, looking shocked.  
  
James stood there, looking hurt more than he was shocked and he took a step back. He felt like he just had his heart ripped out and stepped on repeatedly by Lily.  
  
"Fine then.I'll just get out of your face so you'll never have to see me again, maybe I'll die too to make you happier." He said quietly and started stalking back to the castle.  
  
Lily burst into tears, and ran off in the other direction.  
  
Jen sat in the tree with her eyes wide and her mouth open. Sirius looked utterly shocked, as did Remus and Peter. Kathy had a hand clapped over her mouth and her eyes were wide.  
  
"This. Is. All. Your. Fault. Black! YOU AND YOUR IDEA!" Jen shouted and tried to strangle Sirius.  
  
"Wait, wait Jen, I'LL HELP YOU!" Kathy yelled and tried to strangle him as well.  
  
"AAAH STOP!" Remus yelled and tried to pull them apart, Peter squeaked and tried to pull them apart too.  
  
Kathy and Jen pushed Sirius out of the tree, and stalked off towards the castle, fuming. Remus and Peter jumped out of the tree and helped Sirius up.  
  
"I LOVE YOU TOO!" he spat after Kathy and Jen furiously, a hand on his back.  
  
"This is your fault." Remus said and they all walked to the castle silently.  
  
[James]  
  
James was sitting with his back against the bathroom wall, his elbows rested on his knees and his head was in his hands.  
  
'She hates me.' he thought miserably, feeling like he was going to cry, 'she really thinks I don't like her that way...I love her...if only she knew...if only she knew.I love her so much, and I know I won't be able to go on with my life after Hogwarts if she isn't there with me.' he stood up and locked the door, he didn't want to speak to anyone.  
  
BANG BANG  
  
"Pronnngs, open the door, I need to pee!" Peter said.  
  
"Go away." he yelled miserably.  
  
Remus knocked on the door softly, "James? James open up, you can't hide in there forever mate...err...why are you in there anyway?" he asked. He couldn't let James know they saw the whole thing.  
  
"Yes I can...Lily hates me...it's over." James said.  
  
"What's over Prongs? Why?" Sirius asked, sounding much more serious than he usually did.  
  
"Everything." He answered, staring at the mirror with a weird expression on his face. "I had a fight with Lily."  
  
Sirius and Remus exchanged looks of sympathy before Sirius spoke again.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because she hates me. I didn't mean anything I said..." James replied.  
  
Remus knocked on the door again, "James, open the door. We won't let you hide in the bathroom forever, if Lily doesn't want to go out with you, then leave it, it's her loss. You can't spend the rest of your life like this."  
  
The door slowly opened and James stepped out.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it." he said quietly and plopped on his bed miserably. "Wanna go catch Snivellus and prank him? It'll get your spirits up!" Sirius said brightly and grinned.  
  
"No.then Lily will hate me even more."  
  
Sirius sighed in defeat and sat on his bed, looking at Remus.  
  
Remus mouthed 'Just leave it, he'll come around tomorrow morning.'  
  
Sirius nodded and tried to fall asleep.  
  
[Lily]  
  
Lily sat on her bed, wiping away tears from her eyes.  
  
Jen was sitting next to her, with an arm around her shoulders, "Its okay Lils, you know he wouldn't actually get mad."  
  
"He thinks you're a Queen, he's probably feeling like a loser or something right now." Kathy said, rubbing Lily's back.  
  
"Nooo, but I was really awful to him, I didn't mean it, it's just that he confuses me so much!" Lily said and sniffled.  
  
Jen smiled at her, "It's not your fault...you just don't know how he really feels."  
  
"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Lily said and fell back on her bed, yawning lightly. She was already in her pajamas. "Tomorrow I'm going to get a head start on my homework and start learning for our N.E.W.T.'s."  
  
"Lily, we have a whole MONTH left to do that!" Jen said and frowned.  
  
Kathy gave her the 'shut up and leave her alone.' Look and turned around to sleep too.  
  
Jen sighed and walked over to her bed.  
  
After a while, all the girls fell asleep. Lily had a dream. She was 29 years old and sitting alone in a house, holding a picture of James in her hand, and her other friends were in the background. She looked miserable...really miserable and messed up.  
  
Lily sat up in her bed, and sighed slightly. "It was just a dream.it was just a dream...my life will NOT be like that" she told herself silently before trying to go back to sleep. But Lily couldn't sleep for two hours that night.  
  
A/N: HOLA READERZ! I am soooo sooo sorry it took me like two weeks to post, but so much has been going on with me! School and everything, crazy teachers and my friend is having problems at home! I really am sorry, and I've just been busy lately, even though I did work on the story every once in a while, I just never had enough time to post it and all, and to Algoechen, Thanks! I'm so sorry I haven't been sending you the chapters before I post, but I just couldn't wait any longerrr! Soz! Anyway, I love you all so much that I wrote TWWWOO CHAPTERS! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I finished my homework on the bus today so I could come home, work on the story and post it!! Heheheheh! PLEASE tell me what you think, if this story is getting worse or better, more boring, whatever, I really want to know cause I feel its getting duller!  
  
Okay, thank you to everyone who has been reading my story and keeping up with it!  
  
Dutch Lily Flower: Heyy I updated! ^_^ *runs around *  
  
PonyLuvrGirl: Thank you so much for your awesome reviews!  
  
ElizabethMM: Hey!! I'm really happy that you always want more chapters, but I didn't get your idea about the posting thing..Lol..explain to me again? Slowly cause I be dumby ..Lol..  
  
Agloechen: Hola! ^_^  
  
i o u a name: Thanks for understanding, and the nice comments! I love your story by the way ^_^  
  
Lucille: Hehe! Thanks, and yes school does suck..lots.  
  
Lily106: I have written more! WEEE!  
  
Wicketwood: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah it's Wickety my role-playing buddddie! *Tacklehuggle *, if you like Slash, read her Harry/Draco story, I promise you itss really great, very beautiful and emotional, and the last two sentences be awesome! 


	8. Chapter 8: Christmas Holidays

° - Christmas Holidays - °  
  
It had been two weeks since the fight, two weeks in which Lily and James hadn't spoken to each other. Lily just stalked past whenever James was around, and he tried in vain not to notice she was there. Their friends were getting sick of chasing them around, so they decided to leave it, leave it as it was.  
  
But then, along came an eventful night in the common room.the night that Lily and James started talking to each other again. Much to Jen's disappointment, he didn't kiss her. And Sirius was siriusly going to rip his hair out if they graduated from Hogwarts with Lily and James not engaged or something.  
  
[That night in the Common Room]  
  
Lily sat in an armchair, one leg raised to her chest and her head resting on her knee. Her hair was framing her tired face as she sank back into the couch, a small yawn escaping her lips. She felt awful, again. She just couldn't forget how mean she had been to James...and that look on his face, as if she had just broken his heart or something. She wanted to apologise, but she was feeling too embarrassed. She just hoped that soon enough, she would stop being a chicken and apologize.  
  
The common room was quiet, real quiet since she was the only one in it, reading her Charms textbook. But she couldn't concentrate with this feeling of guilt that plagued her so much. She heard someone enter the common room and turned to see James. He didn't.well, he tried really hard not to look at her and plopped down in an armchair away from her.  
  
Lily couldn't take it anymore, she turned to him and started to muster up the courage to open her mouth and say something. 'You can do it...just say something...'  
  
"James?" she said, turning her head towards him slightly.  
  
"Yes?" he said flatly, turning to look at her.  
  
Her, the girl who would most likely never be his. Her, the girl who made him feel guilty. Her, the girl who made him trip and turn into a clutz whenever he saw her. Her, the girl he loved.  
  
He felt so bad, and so hurt right now.  
  
Lily sighed and got up. She walked over to him and sat down in the armchair facing him.  
  
"James, we need to talk." She said quietly.  
  
He nodded.  
  
"About our fight." She said again, twitching slightly.  
  
"Sorry," they said at the same time as they looked at each other. They both smiled slightly.  
  
"I didn't mean what I said..." Lily said quietly, looking away. "I really didn't, I was just angry James. I don't want you to.die...or anything." she said smiling slightly. "And I'm sorry I slapped you...and called you all those names."  
  
James smiled and waved his hand as if to dismiss it.  
  
"Forgotten." He said. "And I'm sorry for what I said, I didn't mean it." He said and shook his head slightly.  
  
Lily stared at him. Maybe he really did change. She just realized how sincere he sounded when he apologized, and how he had stopped asking her out almost once everyday. He had stopped picking on people and he had been so much nicer to her. Almost too nice. And she had been so stupid as to ignore his efforts.  
  
"You know, James, you really did change this year..." she said softly.  
  
"I did?" he said, perking up slightly.  
  
"Yes," she said and nodded, "You did. You're nicer. And you actually think. And you stopped bullying people. And you developed feelings. And.you're more caring and less arrogant," she finished and smiled.  
  
James grinned from ear to ear, "I changed for you, you know!"  
  
Lily fidgeted with a string on her robes and blushed slightly. "Thanks, James," she said and stood up, trying not to let him notice she was blushing. "I'm tired now, so.see you tomorrow," she said and got up to leave.  
  
"Bye Lily," he said as he watched her disappear into the girls dormitories.  
  
James smiled to himself and soon walked into the boys dormitories.  
  
[Next morning - Saturday- Snowing!]  
  
Lily woke up the next morning and started singing very loudly about the snow outside so the rest of her dorm-mates would wake up.  
  
Dyane Izburn woke up laughing, trying to tell Lily how bad she sounded as she smoothed her shiny black hair.  
  
Serena Malders continued to sleep, her dark blue eyes shut and her light brown hair covering her face.  
  
Melanie and Malorie Faux, who both had silver-blonde hair and big green eyes, were laughing too and all the laughter woke Kathy up.  
  
Jen continued to sleep.but she wasn't sleeping anymore when every girl in the dorm tipped a glass of ice cold water over her.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"  
  
"RUN!" Lily said and all the girls ran out of the dorm, all dressed in their muggle clothes.  
  
Lily was still laughing when she fell backwards on a couch. She was wearing a flowing black skirt that reached her knees with warm white tights under it. She had put on a ¾ sleeved tight rainbow tie-dyed top with a thick denim jacket over it to keep her warm. A white scarf was tied around her neck. Her red hair was in a high ponytail with some strands framing her face. She also had ear muffs on. They were purple and fuzzy.  
  
Kathy was telling all of the girls to be quiet so they wouldn't wake up the rest of the house.  
  
Kathy's chocolate brown hair was loose, with a striped headband in it and she was wearing a very warm, dark purple wool sweater. And black velvet pants. Jen soon came down, just as the other girls in the dorm were leaving the common room.  
  
"That was mean!" she said and pouted. Jen's curls were in a high ponytail and she was wearing a dark pink long-sleeved t-shirt and faded jeans and her high-top shoes. She was wearing a white jacket over her t-shirt.  
  
"What was mean?" came Sirius' voice as he appeared in the common room with Remus. Sirius was wearing an oversized dark blue sweater and jeans, Remus a white t-shirt with a black jacket over it and jeans.  
  
"They woke me up with water," Jen said and rolled her eyes.  
  
Sirius sniggered, "Even that wouldn't wake James up."  
  
Remus laughed slightly, "We tried to wake him and Peter up with water, but no use!"  
  
"I know what could wake him up!" Jen said, a mad glint in her eye.  
  
"What?" all the others said in unison.  
  
"Tell him he's just been kicked off the Gryffindor team!" Jen laughed, her eyes twinkling.  
  
"Oooh, brilliant!" Sirius said and ran back to the dorms.  
  
"So how has your morning been so far?" Remus asked the girls.  
  
"Fine," Lily said cheerfully.  
  
"Funny..." Kathy said and grinned.  
  
"Frustrating," Jen said, shooting a glare at Kathy and Lily.  
  
Suddenly a loud, sputtering, "WHAAAAAAT?!" could be heard from the boys' dormitories. James came tearing down from the dorms, making to leave. He was already dressed in a huge red sweater and black jeans.  
  
Lily grabbed his arm before the mess could leave the common room.  
  
"Hey, wait! It was a joke!" she said and laughed.  
  
James blinked, "It was?"  
  
Remus nodded, "So we could get you to wake up."  
  
"Funny joke," James said sarcastically.  
  
Sirius came down the stairs soon, still laughing.  
  
"Let's go outside before it stops snowing!" Lily said, practically jumping off the couch. She started dragging her friends out. Then the Marauders followed with Peter still half-asleep.  
  
[Outside]  
  
Lily squealed as she stepped outside with all her friends, it was so cold out. So could, but so beautiful. The scene was amazing. All the trees were covered in snow, and the castle was too. The sun was shining on the frozen lake, and it all looked magnificent.  
  
"Its so beautiful," Lily said and smiled, bending down to make a snowball. But too late.  
  
SPLAT!  
  
James had thrown a snowball at her and at Jen. Bad idea.  
  
Lily fell forward slightly, from surprise and Jen shrieked and jumped. Lily whirled around and threw the snowball she had made at James, then Jen threw one at him. He fell, but he was laughing.  
  
Jen was threw a snowball at Remus, Sirius was chasing Kathy around, who was shrieking about not wanting to get hit with a snowball, and Lily and James were both laughing. Weird scene.  
  
James stood up, then offered Lily his hand to pull her up, and she took it and let him pull her to her feet. There was a weird, devilish smile on her face and her hand was behind her back. Half a second later James's face was covered in snow. Lily ran away laughing, and James was sputtering and brushing snow off his face and cleaning his glasses.  
  
Jen had gotten herself and Remus involved in a snowball fight with Amos Diggory, The Faux twins, and 2 more Ravenclaws she had just met.  
  
Kathy was having a conversation with Sirius about why she hated snow, and she was standing about two feet away from him, afraid he might throw a snowball at her.  
  
"Come back here!" James yelled after Lily and took off after her at full speed, grinning.  
  
Lily was running as fast as she could, but James was catching up pretty fast. She got a thought and stopped, turning around so he nearly rammed into her.  
  
"Wait...what are you going to do if you do catch me anyway?", she asked, a smile on her face as if daring him to do anything.  
  
James's eyes were twinkling, that odd look when he was up to something, and he had a mischevious smile on his face. "I heard you were ticklish, Evans." He said and grinned madly.  
  
"I am not!" she lied, taking a step backwards. She had a vague idea of what he was planning to do.  
  
"Well, I'm afraid I am going to have to find out!" he said.  
  
She shrieked as James 's hands found their way on to her - and began tickling mercilessly. He was standing behind her with his arms around her waist, and she was laughing and trying to get away from him.  
  
"Let.me...go..." she said through fits of laughter and squirming.  
  
"Surrender!" he laughed, tickling her even more.  
  
"Ne-ver..." she said and tried to get his hands off between giggles.  
  
"Oooh, lookie!" Jen said, poking Remus. "It's so cu-HEY!" she yelled as someone hit her with a snowball she pointed to James and Lily.  
  
Remus grinned, and threw another one at her.  
  
Sirius and Kathy were making a snowman, with Kathy squealing and jumping back everytime Sirius made a move like he was going to hit her with a snowball. They were making a snowwoman, too. Kathy had her camera with her, and took a picture of James tickling Lily.  
  
"AH.Get.OFF.!" Lily wailed through her laughter. James was laughing too, and had to let her go because he was shaking with laughter.  
  
"You should have seen your face, Evans, when I said I was going to find out for myself..." he said and copied the horrified face.  
  
SPLAT.  
  
Another snowball to the face from Lily, and she tackled him this time too.  
  
"HAH!" she said, sitting on his stomach and flicking his nose evilly.  
  
"Come now, Lil-OW!" he yelled as she flicked his nose.  
  
"Heeheee..." she said and smiled innocently. She poked his eye next.  
  
"Eva-OW!" he yelped again, and poked her back. She poked him again then took his glasses off his face and jumped off him, laughing. She wondered what he would look like without his glasses.  
  
He stood up, and blinked, "Lily.everything is sort of blurry..." he said, reaching his hands out.  
  
Lily smiled. James looked cute without his glasses. She grinned and poked him from the back.  
  
"Lily," he nearly whined, "Where are you?" he said, whirling around. And she was standing there, laughing slightly. She looked weird through his eyes without glasses. It was almost just red and green, that he could see. She put his glasses on his nose again.  
  
"Hey Evans, don't steal my glasses, it's not nice," he said and pouted, although he couldn't stop grinning.  
  
"Yeah, whatever," she said laughing, sounding a little Irish.  
  
"Aren't you from England, Evans?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.  
  
"My mum is Irish, it explains the red hair too," she said as they walked over to Kathy and Sirius.  
  
"What are you doing?" Lily asked them. "We're making a snow couple, see snowman and snowwoman!" Kathy said and nodded, suppressing her laughter.  
  
Sirius grinned slightly and waved to Lily and James foolishly, "Hello," he said, and stood behind the snow couple. "All done," he said and Kathy took a picture of him with the snow couple.  
  
"Now, let's go get Jen and Remus, we have decided that we are all going to Hogsmeade," Kathy said and Sirius nodded.  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow, "We? Heh...okay then, let's go," she said and they all walked over to Jen and Remus, and pulled them out of the snow ball fight.  
  
"We're going to Hogsmeade!" Kathy announced. "Great!" Jen said, then looked sad, "I don't want to leave for the Christmas Holidays...it means I have to deal with my step mom," she said and scowled. "Stupid witch-hater," she mumbled but then put on a confident smile and looked around at all of them, "Well, let's go!" she said and they all headed off into the castle to get dry. And warm.  
  
[20 minutes later!]  
  
"Argh, Kathy, stop fussing, we're leaving. See, we're all getting up!" Remus said and stood up, she was trying to tip him off his chair. All of the others stood up and yawned slightly.  
  
"Bah, let's go before we all fall asleep or something!" Sirius said and ushered all of them out of the common room.  
  
[Hogsmeade]  
  
"Okay, so we're here!" Lily said and grinned. She was standing next to Remus and Sirius, facing Jen, Kathy and James.  
  
She loved Hogsmeade. There was always the sound of people pushing past each other, shop-keepers yelling to each other, people laughing and the light was shining on the snow-covered shops, making them look nice.  
  
Lily grinned and practically skipped across the path that lead to a new store that had opened. "Hey, where to, Lils?" Jen asked and grinned, "to that new store I hope?"  
  
"Yep!" Lily said, and Kathy smiled happily, holding her camera. "Ah...what do they sell there again?"  
  
"Necklaces, rings, bracelets. But all with magic on them, so they're not normal things.and there's some other junk too!" Lily said as the walked into the store. Lily looked at the store in amazement. There were necklaces, dangling off hangers everywhere, along with bracelets and rings, some were even floating. There were books, special types of ink, air chimes and strange looking things. The shop was dimly lit and had an eerie feeling to it. The shopkeeper was a witch with straight black hair and bright gray eyes. Thin, young and pale, she was adorned with rings, bracelets and necklaces.  
  
"Ah, I see you have come across my store, welcome, welcome, how can I help you?" she said in a Scottish accent.  
  
"Oh, we're just going to look, thank you," Kathy said politely and smiled. Lily walked over to Jen, who was looking at a shiny silver ring with a stone exactly the color of her eyes on it. "Excuse me," she said to the witch, "can you please tell me about this ring?" Jen asked, holding up the ring, an eyebrow risen.  
  
"That one, yes, that one is a special ring my dear. That ring stops night mares, it was said that thousands of years ago, that tiny stone was part of a huge rock, a huge rock known as 'Seramthenis'. The stone was believed to curse away bad luck and dreams, dear.but you ought to be careful." The witch said, smiling.  
  
"Yeah, right." Jen said, distractedly. She was staring at the ring, and it was glowing slightly. "How much is this?" she asked. "A Galleon." The witch answered. Jen nodded and bought the ring, then wore it.  
  
Lily was examining a pair of earrings. They were rubies and they had a tiny emerald stone in them. "Could you please tell me about these earrings?" Lily asked the witch.  
  
"Those earrings belonged to a witch, around 20 years ago. A very powerful witch," The shopkeeper said, examining them.  
  
"Alright then, I'll buy them," Lily smiled and paid for them.  
  
Kathy was staring at a bracelet, a silver chain bracelet with a small, shiny purple diamond hanging off it. She tried it on and smiled, it looked really nice.  
  
"That bracelet attracts attention," the witch said, "it just turns heads sometimes."  
  
Kathy nodded like she believed the witch and bought the bracelet. The Marauders were all mumbling quietly, huddled around a book. It was a horoscope book and they were trying to figure out what it meant, since it was all written in such a complicated way.  
  
The girls laughed, and pulled them out.  
  
"Ah, the light is hurting my eyes, because it was so dark in there!" Jen laughed.  
  
"Heh...where to now?" Lily said, shivering slightly. "Let's go to 'The Three Broomsticks'!" Remus said. "Yeah, I'm freezing!" Sirius agreed.  
  
"Okay...", James said, and the others nodded, all setting off towards the pub.  
  
[The Three Broomsticks]  
  
"Argh, Jen, give me my butterbeer", Kathy said, struggling to reach her arm over the table - she was sitting at the one end of the table and the butterbeers were at the other end.  
  
Jen laughed and passed Kathy her butterbeer. She took a long sip of her own and smiled. Lily stared at her jug.  
  
"Are you lot positive there's nothing in it?" she asked testily, raising both eyebrows.  
  
They all groaned, it was the hundredth time that day that she had asked, "YES!" they all bellowed. She took a sip and smiled slightly, "Alright, I believe you."  
  
Jen rolled her eyes and yawned lightly, "Tiredness..." she said and grinned.  
  
"Okay, question!" Sirius said loudly, "Who is leaving tomorrow, and who isn't?" he asked, looking at all of them.  
  
"Leaving," they all said at once. Sirius laughed.  
  
"I'm going to my apartment, and the rest of you?"  
  
"I'm going to Jen's place," Lily said.  
  
"Me too!" Kathy said.  
  
"I'm going home," Remus and James said.  
  
"Oh okay.I'll send all of you your Christmas presents with my owl!" Sirius said and smiled.  
  
"Same," the girls said.  
  
James and Remus nodded.  
  
"Shouldn't we be leaving now?" Lily said after 25 minutes.  
  
"Yes, we should." Jen said, and Kathy stood up, all of the others following suit.  
  
They all paid for their drinks and walked out of the pub talking.  
  
[The Next Morning - After Breakfast]  
  
"And be sure to study for the N.E.W.T.'s, and make notes, and read the books, and do the assignments," Lily and Remus were lecturing their friends the next morning in the common room before the Leaving Feast.  
  
"Alriiight, alright!" Sirius said and frowned. "Lily is going to be with us anyway, so it isn't like we have much of a choice!" Kathy whined, "You're so lucky!" she said and kicked Sirius, James and Peter jokingly.  
  
"Promise you'll write, all of you!" James said and grinned.  
  
"Promise!" they all chorused.  
  
[On the train ride back to Kings Cross Station]  
  
"No, Jen, I'm not telling you what I got you!" Lily said and yawned, her head falling onto Kathy's shoulder. Jen frowned.  
  
"Don't you want it to be a surprise?" Remus said and grinned. "Yeah, don't you?" Sirius said and poked her.  
  
"Arrgh, go away!" she said and stuck her tongue out. James laughed at her immature behaviour.  
  
"Lily, wake up, we need to go patrol the corridors," he said, nudging her lightly.  
  
She stood up and walked out, with him following her.  
  
"HEY! YOU! DON'T!" Lily yelled to a Fifth Year Hufflepuff boy who was about to plant a dungbomb. He muttered something and scuttled away. Lily frowned and shook her head, walking around a corner and bumping straight into someone. She stumbled backwards and felt herself fall as the person she had bumped into pushed her down forcefully.  
  
Lily looked up and saw Bellatrix Black, her sister Narcissa, a girl with curly black hair and ugly sneer she was sure was called Melodia King, a girl with dark brown hair she knew was Kelsey and another girl with bright orange hair that she didn't know.  
  
"Eurgh! Watch were you're going, you filthy little mudblood!" Bellatrix screeched, dusting off herself as if Lily had just climbed out of a sewer. Narcissa was glaring at Lily down her pinched nose. The other three girls were jeering at her. She felt slightly intimidated as she backed up a little and stood up, putting on a confident look.  
  
"Wash out your mouth," she told Bellatrix calmly, her eyes slightly narrowed in warning. She didn't even look at the other four girls.  
  
The girl with bright orange here, who was particularly large in sized, pushed Lily, making her stumble back slightly. All the other girls laughed.  
  
"And who's going to make her?" the curly-haired girl said in her girly voice, pulling out her wand.  
  
"Not you, I hope?" Kelsey said and sneered. She laughed and glared at Lily.  
  
"Don't touch her," Narcissa said, "I don't want your filth on my sister! You are a disgrace to the wizarding world anyway," she said and smirked.  
  
Lily glared at all of them and stood up again, "I think we have different opinions about what is a disgrace, Narcissa,"  
  
Bellatrix threw her head back and laughed, her black hair falling into her eyes, "She wouldn't dare touch me! And shut up Evans, you are a piece of dirt anyway."  
  
"Or would she?" the orange haired girl said and kicked Lily.  
  
"Hmm...maybe she's too ugly to do that," Kelsey said, "After all, she DOES look like her hair is on fire. And her eyes are the color of that green sludge in sewers."  
  
"And she's pathetic. Little mudblood coming into the wizarding world, thinking she actually matters," Melodia sneered.  
  
Lily felt tears stinging her eyes, she backed up a little, but glared all the while.  
  
"Oh look, she's going to cry, little poor baby mudblood," Bellatrix taunted.  
  
"And if you don't shut up, you will be crying soon." Jen said, stepping next to Lily. She looked so angry it wasn't even funny, and when Jen was angry, God help whoever was on the receiving end on one of her slaps...  
  
Bellatrix pretended to shudder, "Oh, that's so damn scary, I'm so scared!" she said, her cronies all started to laugh.  
  
"You should be," said Kathy's voice, and she appeared on the other side of Lily. She was furious.  
  
"Really, now, why would I be scared of Miss Mudblo..." Bellatrix started, but was cut short by Kathy shrieking "How dare you?!" and next thing she knew, Jen's hand flew across her face, and both of them grabbed Lily and turned around, storming back to the compartment. Lily dropped into a seat by the corner and raised her legs to her chest, and let the tears spill from her eyes.  
  
Jen sat in front of her, and Kathy next to her, both of them trying to say comforting things to her, and trying to show her they weren't angry anymore, even though they were. Sirius and Remus looked utterly confused, and Peter was sleeping.  
  
"What happened to her?" Sirius asked, moving over to where the girls and Lily were with Remus.  
  
"Did someone annoy her?" Remus asked.  
  
"It was Bellatrix and her gang!" Jen said furiously, slamming her fist on the seat next to Lily. "They...they were calling her mudblood and other foul names like themselves!" she nearly yelled.  
  
Kathy wiped away a tear from her eyes. They were tears of anger. Kathy hated the injustices made against Muggle-born people. She was so angry right now, why did people like to ruin other people's happiness all the time with their stuck up attitudes?  
  
Lily just sobbed, and hid her face; she wouldn't let anyone talk to her. Thirty seconds later, James walked in, and noticed that Sirius wasn't in the compartment anymore, Remus was trying to talk to Lily, and Jen and Kathy had left with Sirius, to 'talk' to Bellatrix about her attitude.  
  
"Remus, what happened to her?" James's said, sounding very concerned as he sat next to Lily.  
  
"It was Bellatrix, Bellatrix and her gang, they were taunting Lily..." Remus said, and James was angry. He hugged Lily, and surprisingly, she didn't push him off.  
  
She was still hiding her face with her hands.  
  
"Its okay, Lily, you shouldn't let them get to you, they only go around annoying people because they have insecurities and because they think they are higher than most people," Remus and James were telling her just as Sirius, Jen and Kathy walked in.  
  
"We told her and her stupid friends to back off," Jen said and smiled slightly confidently.  
  
Lily finally revealed her face, and pulled away from James.  
  
"Thanks..." she mumbled. "I shouldn't have let them get to me, I know, but it's not fair." She said and rubbed one of her eyes.  
  
Jen put an arm around her shoulders, "I know, but they were bullying you, what was that, five or four on one?" Kathy spat.  
  
Lily shrugged and smiled weakly, "I'm fine, really I am." she insisted.  
  
"Okay then," Jen said and Kathy smiled. Sirius sat down, looking glum. He had been yelling at his cousins, and he didn't feel bad for doing it, but it was just the fact that they were from the same family that made him feel embarrassed.  
  
James smiled at Lily and she smiled back. "I'll patrol the corridors, Lily, you can stay here," he said, standing up, and walked out before she had a chance to protest. "Thanks!" she called out after him.  
  
Lily didn't know why, but she suddenly felt like she had started to have feelings for him. She also didn't know if that was good or bad. What was she going to do?  
  
A/N: HEY READERS! I am so, so sorry I haven't updated in such a long time! But school work and writers block took over! I HATED IT! But then I just knew that I had to update, that I really wanted to. So I opened word, and sat there for an hour till I came up with some ideas! Hehe! Again, I'm sorry. TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY! OCTOBER 13! WEE! 


	9. Chapter 9: Its Hard

° - It's Hard- °  
  
[Kings Cross Station]  
  
Kathy was the last to get off the train, since she lost her earring in the compartment they were sitting in. She quickly got off, making her way through the sea of students and families and walking over to her friends.  
  
James was hugging his mum, and his dad was standing next to him. James looked very much like his dad.  
  
Sirius was neglecting his parents, who were there to pick up Regulus.  
  
Jen was glaring at a tall, middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and green eyes while hugging her dad.  
  
Lily and Kathy were guessing this woman was Jen's 'evil' stepmother, as she put it. Lily and Kathy both greeted Jen's parents politely. Their parents were not here since they were spending the Christmas holidays at Jens'.  
  
Remus was speaking in French to his parents and Peter was conversing with his parents quietly.  
  
Jen looked at the woman then back at Kathy and Lily.  
  
"Marianne, these are my best friends, Lily Evans", she said, motioning to Lily, "and Kathy Robinson. Lily, Kathy this is Marianne " She said. Jen turned away and started speaking in Russian to her dad while the girls and Marianne had a conversation.  
  
After they all broke away from their parents, it was time to say goodbye to each other. Of course, James, felt he had to make a scene to prove that he really would miss Lily.  
  
James -dramatically- nearly fell on Lily on purpose. And she almost had to hold him up, laughing.  
  
"Get up, James! This is embarrassing!" she said and blushed, holding him up. She was blushing because a lot of the people at the station were looking at them.  
  
He snickered and got off then hugged her, nearly squishing her. "I'll miss you Evans!" he cried, not noticing that she was nearly going to die.  
  
All the others laughed as Kathy took a picture.  
  
"Get off!" she managed to choke out, and trying to get him off. "Oops!"  
  
He grinned and let her go. He then hugged each one of the girls and his friends, telling them all to write, and to study, mimicking Lily.  
  
Finally, they all left, almost sadly.  
  
[The Potter Household]  
  
"Finally!" James said and grinned, running a hand through his hair as he stepped in to his large house, smiling. The staircase was in front of him; to his right was the living room, to his left the lounge and near the living room there was a big kitchen. The walls were all pained a slight cream/yellow color, matching furniture.  
  
Mrs.Potter laughed and smiled at him, "You've grown so much James!" she said and hugged him again, her auburn hair falling into her eyes out of her bun. Her gray eyes twinkled as she pulled away from her son, who was much taller than her.  
  
James rolled his eyes and hugged her back, "I know mum, you say that every Christmas!" he said exasperatedly.  
  
Mr. Potter stepped in and shut the door after him, "Say, James, who was that red headed girl you were hugging at the station?" he asked with a slight mischievous smile on his thin face matching James'. He set James' trunk near the staircase and looked at him again. His mum was suppressing laughter at the look on her son's face.  
  
James blushed and grinned at his dad nervously. "Heh.that's.er.Lily, Lily Evans." He said and nodded, cursing himself for blushing.  
  
"Friend of yours?" his mum asked, a knowing smile on her face as she looked at her rather red son. "Yeah, friend, yes." He said, nodding quickly and not looking at his dad.  
  
"SO! Mum, dad, how has...work at the ministry been?" he asked lamely, not wanting to talk about Lily with his parents right now.  
  
"Fine," his parents said, suppressing their laughter. It was obvious their son liked this girl.  
  
"Is Sirius going to come this Christmas?" Mrs.Potter asked, a pleased smile on her face. She was used to Sirius coming around so much that she considered him part of the family now.  
  
"No, im planning to write to Lily, Jen, Kathy, Remus and Peter and tell them we should all drop at his place on Christmas!" James said, thoughtfully, absently running a hand through his hair and making it messier. "I don't think he should just spend Christmas on his own in that little apartment of his.so wouldn't he get quite a surprise when he'd hear six cracks of apparating and then see us?"  
  
Mr. Potter laughed, "Yes, he would."  
  
"Im going to go.think about it!" James said, running upstairs to his room.  
  
"But you are coming down for dinner, which is in 10 minutes!"  
  
[The Lupin Household]  
  
Remus walked into his small house with his mom, a small smile on his slightly pale face. He set his trunk down and shut the old door after his mom entered the house carrying his owl. He took it from her and set it down. He rubbed his hands together and walked in to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate for him and his mum to talk over.  
  
"So how has your year been so far?" his mum asked with a meek smile, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear.  
  
"Fine, it's been alright mum, how have you and dad been?" he asked, walking over to the small living room with two mugs of hot chocolate, and sat down. He handed one of the mugs to his mum.  
  
"We've been fine, Remus, still alive," she laughed. Remus gave a small laugh, "Don't say that, mum, it makes me think you're going to die soon." He said.  
  
"Where is dad?" he asked, after a moment of silence and sipping. He turned his head towards his mum.  
  
"Work." She answered. Mr. Lupin was usually at work because his job wasn't that good, and he needed to stay a tad longer than most people to gain extra money. He worked hard to pay for the house and to buy food and keep his family well. Remus didn't care that his family was not rich, as long as they had a roof to live under and food to eat, that was fine with him, and as long that his parents loved him and each other, it would be okay.  
  
"But he will be home in time for dinner", she said, grinning, "He said he didn't want to miss having dinner with you tonight, and talking to you about how your year was, and about the N.E.W.T's," she said.  
  
"Okay," he said and smiled.  
  
After five minutes of joking with his mum, a loud crack could be heard as Mr. Lupin stood by the door, smiling.  
  
Mrs. Lupin, and Remus stood up, and both hugged him. "Hello Remus, missed you over those months, how have you been, son?" he asked grinning. Mr. Lupin looked frighteningly a lot like Remus. They both had the same light brown hair, and the same eye shape and nose, except that Mr. Lupin had soft green eyes and Remus had amber-honey eyes, like his mother.  
  
Mrs. Lupin prepared dinner with Mr. Lupin's and Remus's help, and they settled down to talk about how things have been so far.  
  
[The Grisdale Household]  
  
Jen didn't smile as she and her friends, along with her parents, apparated in front of her door. She just pushed the large, oak door open after glancing at the huge, huge front garden and big black gates quite a distance away. She scowled and walked in, lugging her trunk behind her. Kathy and Lily exchanged confused looks, but decided to ask when they were with Jen in her room, so her parents couldn't hear them as they talked about it.  
  
Lily brushed her red hair away from her face as they all stepped in after the large oak doors to Jen's house opened. Kathy's jaw nearly dropped. Jen's house was huge - and gorgeous. She lived in a 15-room mansion with about five floors, all of course linked together with confusing passages and staircases. But Jen knew them all. Mostly the house was painted the color scarlet, and filled with luxuries. Jen didn't even bother to stop and talk to her parents, just preceded to her room with Kathy and Lily.  
  
"Jen, what's up? You're supposed to look happy when you come home!" Lily said with concern in her voice as she sank in to a comfy couch in Jen's room. Kathy stood at Jen's desk, examining all the photos, drawings and junk cluttered all over on one table.  
  
"Nothing. I just don't like Marianne. That's all." She said quietly, turning away from her friends and picking up a photo off her desk, smiling slightly. Kathy looked at it and noticed Jen's mom in the photo. "Oh!" Kathy cried out in surprise, Jen's mother looked exactly like her, just older with longer hair and a more graceful appearance than Jen, who had a rather mysterious air to her. "Yeah.I know.she looks like me!" Jen said and grinned cheekily. Lily hopped off the couch and ran over to see. "Jen she looks like your older sister!" Lily said and smiled, examining the picture more closely, her emerald green eyes shining with interest. She turned to Jen.  
  
"Jen-are your parents separated?" Kathy asked. Jen shook her head no, wiping a tear away from her face, but the girls couldn't see since Jen had the picture in her hand with her back to them. "My mum died...before I went to Hogwarts." She said.  
  
Kathy and Lily looked surprised. She never told them anything about her family - so this was new. They both hugged her, asking why she never told them about it before.  
  
Jen shrugged, sitting on her bed and staring around at the dark blue walls in her spacious room. She examined her nails before answering. "Didn't want to get in to it.I don't like discussing my past." she said in the same quiet tone when she was upset about something. Kathy and Lily exchanged knowing looks and decided to change the subject; Jen obviously didn't want to speak about it.  
  
"I feel bad for Sirius." Lily said, and Kathy nodded, "Yeah, he has to spend Christmas all by himself!" she said and frowned.  
  
"I bet James will probably think of something. He loves Sirius like a brother too much to let him spend Christmas alone." Jen said and grinned as the two girls nodded and got in to a conversation about the stupidest things their dads had ever done during Christmas.  
  
[Sirius's Apartment]  
  
Sirius apparated in front of the door of his apartment, looking slightly tired and frustrated as he unlocked the door and pushed it open gently. He walked inside and set his bags down near the door as he quietly kicked it shut. He looked around, it was not much. Plain white walls, a small kitchen and living room, along with two bedrooms and one bathroom. The living room was slightly messy. It was a nice-looking place with a homely feel and some pictures and wizarding books lying around, some still opened and some closed with the page marked. The books were Defence Against the Dark Arts books, and there were two 'Cooking for Lazy People' books. Sirius sniggered as he shut them and set them back on a shelf.  
  
He plopped down on the couch, running a hand through his hair and yawning slightly. Three days 'til Christmas...he would probably spend them alone or at the shops. He looked over at a picture of all the Marauders together and smiled fondly. Sitting up, he reached over to pick it up. It was taken last year by Hagrid. Remus, James and Peter were all standing in a straight line carrying Sirius in their arms-in a lying down position with his hands behind his head. He laughed, shaking his head slightly as memories flooded his brain.  
  
Three hours later it was midnight. Sirius was drawing in a sketchbook. And surprisingly enough, he was really good at it. He was sketching Hogwarts with Lily and James in front of it for some reason he didn't know. The sun was setting in the picture and he had gotten every detail in the picture right - maybe because he loved Hogwarts more than any other place on the face of the Earth. He finished sketching it an hour later, smiling slightly, as though fond of it and as soon as he lay back down on the couch he fell asleep.  
  
[The next day - the Lupin household]  
  
"Remus, wake up. Right now or no Christmas presents!" Mrs. Lupin laughed, shaking her grumbling son gently. "I am serious - if we don't go right now it gets too crowded! It's already about two in the afternoon, Remus!" she scolded, whacking him playfully.  
  
Remus mumbled something about a human alarm clock and jumped out of his bed. "See, I'm up, mum. Relax. We will go before the crowd tramples us!" he said and laughed slightly, hugging his mum. "I'll get dressed and we'll go."  
  
"What about breakfast?" Mrs. Lupin said, raising an eyebrow. "Hmmmm?"  
  
Remus waved his hand, as though dismissing it while he ushered his mum out of his room so he could change.  
  
About a minute later he came out and started using the same tone as his mum in telling her they should go, "No, no, we should go now before the crowd gets too thick, Marianne!"  
  
His mum rolled her eyes and looked at him seriously. "We are apparating there! Get a move on it!" she said and disappeared with a loud 'pop'. Seconds later, after snickering, Remus followed her.  
  
[The Grisdale Household]  
  
"JENNIIIIFFEERR! UP!" Lily yelled, jumping on Jens bed like it was a trampoline, "WE HAVE TO GO TO DIAGON ALLEY! SHOPPING! RIGHT NOW! EEE!" she yelled loudly, glancing down at Jen in actual hopes that she would wake her up and get her to move her lazy butt out of bed.  
  
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!" Kathy screeched, joining Lily in jumping on the bed, and starting to talk at an incredibly fast speed, stuttering every now and then. But hey, how else could they wake up someone who took ages to get up?!  
  
"FINE, FINE, I'M UP, I'M UP!" she finally, yelled, shooting up so she sat up straight and so that Lily and Kathy were pushed off, laughing hysterically while she stomped into the showers, muttering obscenities under her breath while Lily and Kathy continued to laugh.  
  
"She is such an idiot!" Kathy snickered, brushing her long brown hair away from her face while helping Lily off the floor. "Yeah.when she's sleeping!" Lily said, giggling slightly.  
  
"Agreed." Kathy said and smiled in her usual, cheery, happy, Kathy-like way. She bounced over to Jen's dresser and starting to fiddle with everything on it, humming a slightly random tune under her breath.  
  
Lily, meanwhile, was banging on the bathroom-door. "WHAT, WE WAKE YOU UP AND NOW WE HAVE TO DRAG YOU OUT OF THE BLOODY SHOWER?!" she yelled.  
  
BANG...BANG...BANG.  
  
"GET OVER WITH IT!" Jen said, and the door flew open. Jen danced past Lily, laughing and twirling slightly, her long blonde hair hitting Lily while Kathy tried to wipe off some disgusting orange looking stuff she put on her face by mistake.  
  
After 15 minutes of jumping around and eating breakfast while discussing what they were going to do, the girls all apparated to Diagon Alley.  
  
[The Potter Household]  
  
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES!" Mrs. Potter sang from downstairs, smoothing her dark red robes. "GET UP! WE'RE GOING TO DIAGON ALLEY! COME ON!" she yelled impatiently.  
  
James rolled over in his bed and fell on the ground, grumbling with a startled "OW!". He ran a hand through his rats nest...I mean hair and stood up, stretching and yawning hugely. "WHAT'S THE TIME, MUM?!" he yelled to her as he put on his clothes slowly and lazily.  
  
"Its two thirty! Get a move on!" she barked as he stumbled down the stairs.  
  
"James, you look like a mess!" his mum said, frowning slightly. "What else is new?" his dad asked, poking his head out from above his newspaper and grinning at his wife who rolled her eyes.  
  
James snickered and looked at his parents. "Is dad coming too, mum?"  
  
"No," Mrs. Potter said, "he has to go to work. Let's go James, we are apparating there."  
  
"Right." He said, and with a loud pop, they apparated there.  
  
[Sirius's Apartment]  
  
Sirius woke up to find that he had fallen asleep on the couch after he had finished drawing. He sat up, yawning hugely, running a hand through his hair and rubbing his face while he set the other one down on the cough next to him. He looked around then suddenly remembered something and grumbled slightly.  
  
"Shopping...no maybe later on.or no, that's too busy at that 'later' I think. I know I'm talking about...gah...I feel so stupid at the moment, it's unbelievable, really!" he wondered out loud.  
  
"I need to go shopping..." he mumbled distractedly to himself, sort of half telling himself that that was what he was going to do right now, weather he liked it or not, because it was the right time of day to go anyway. He was amused that he hadn't forgotten all about shopping he had to do. Weird, being alone does things to you sometimes. He sat up straight lazily then got up and slouched to his room, kicking things out of his way casually as he walked.  
  
He changed out of the clothes he fell asleep in and had some cereal for breakfast. He moved the flakes around with his spoon, staring at his plate still only half-awake. He didn't know why he still felt so tired from the train ride yesterday. He looked at the time and got up, stretching slightly, and apparated to Diagon Alley, wondering if he might run into any friends while he was there. Well he hoped so. Especially James.  
  
(A/N: James and Remus go with their mums because their mums have some shopping to do and so they went together...)  
  
[Diagon Alley - Lily, Jen and Kathy]  
  
"OHHH, OOH COME LOOK AT THIIIS!" Kathy sang from the back of Flourish & Blotts (A/N: I think that's the right name -_-) holding up a fairly interesting book about dangerous and rare magical creatures. She grinned at the book almost proudly, after half an hour of looking at shelves and shelves of books attempting to find the right one for Remus. She had somehow thought that it might interest someone who loved to read. Lily had also found a rather interesting book, a book about the Dark Arts. It contained some Dark potions and spells, but the incantations or ingredients were not in it of course. Jen had found a book on the history of the Dark Arts...a rather big book that contained it all, from the first occurrence to the recent events. Lily stood at a table with a stack of different books on it, holding the book she had picked out with a rather interested expression on her face.  
  
"Oh, show us what you found Kathy." Lily said and smiled as she heard Kathy's excited voice through the store, holding the book she had found under her arm. "I found this one about magical creatures and all. It looks very nice, if you ask me." Kathy said, glancing at the cover with a smile. "I would read it, but I'm too hyper about the shopping right now to actually do so."  
  
The book was a hard back one, black in color and had a drawing of one of the creatures in the book on the front. It had a large, cursive title 'Creatures of the Magical World' in dark red on the front. It looked like an interesting book, with a look that would make someone open it just out of interest because of the interesting looking picture on it.  
  
"Nice." Jen said, and then showed them the book she found, which was also another interesting book.  
  
"Oooh," Lily said, reading the title, which was in a dark blue color set against the dusty gray cover. "Good find!" she said and grinned. "I found this one about the Dark Arts and spells and potions related to it. I think James might burn that one if he sees it." She said, snickering slightly. She knew how much James hated the Dark Arts. She showed them the book. It was dark brown with golden writing on it.  
  
"Right then, that gets done with presents for Remus...now James..." Jen said happily, after they had paid for the books and walked out of the store. All of them had the books put in to fancy looking gift boxes, with a nice wrapping around them.  
  
"Where do we go?" Jen asked blankly, brushing her hair away from her face as the wind blew. Her eyes were shining in the light, appearing to be a lighter gray than they already were. She was in a good mood too, that was why. She smiled at her friends. She loved shopping for presents a lot.  
  
"Quality Quidditch Supplies!" Kathy piped up and grinned. She was always one to think fast when excited. She beamed, bouncing up and down with excitement slightly, the Christmas spirit getting to her with so many happy people walking around. The air was filled with happiness...or rather people running around trying to get into stores to find what they wanted before someone else got it and they had to be stuck in the store for another half an hour trying to find something else that the person they were shopping for might like.  
  
"Bingo!" Lily said happily, giving her best friend a high five; that was smart of Kathy, to think of going to the Quidditch store for Quidditch-mad James. It worked, it really did.  
  
Kathy and Jen were staring at her like she had just grown another three, say, four heads.  
  
"What's a bingo?" Jen said, raising an eyebrow amusedly at Lily.  
  
Lily realized that what she said was unclear to her pureblood, not muggle- born friends and laughed, shaking her head as she started towards the Quidditch store. Her two friends followed her, clearly confused while Lily laughed her butt off as they made their way in to the store.  
  
"Okay, let's decide what we're going to get him now." Lily said, and looked around the store. "I'm going to buy him a book on Quidditch teams and tricks and all that stuff he actually finds interesting..." she said and shrugged, smiling slightly. "Okay then.I'm going to get him a broom polishing set." Kathy said. "And I'll get him one of those nice looking trunks to keep Quidditch balls in. They aren't too big, so I'll manage lugging it around." Jen said and smiled. They all went and found what they were planning to get, paid for it, and headed to the joke store for Sirius. They automatically knew that it was the only place to find a gift for someone such as Sirius. They walked out with their hands holding all kinds of things to help set up the perfect prank.  
  
They all got Peter something out of the joke store as well.  
  
Now it was time to get something for each other. They all headed separate ways, planning to meet again at the ice cream store.  
  
[Mrs. Lupin and Remus]  
  
"No mum, I'm not getting James a poster of a Quidditch Team." Remus said to his mum distractedly as he glanced at the other stuff in a store that sold random things. The store had peeling bright purple and dark green paint, and it was a tightly packed place, all the tables with random things piled next to each other almost carelessly, all looming out with a spark. The place had few people in it, with the exception of the old and grizzly shopkeeper who was walking around trying to sell the most useless things ever.  
  
"Maybe you should get him." she said, then paused slightly. "A book?"  
  
Remus snorted, "You crack me up mum. To get James to actually read a book, or actually bother to, would be enough for everyone in Hogwarts to die of shock...not that James is stupid of course, it's just that it takes him quite a bit to read a book. Or rather to bother to try and read a book, mum." he said quietly as he picked up another piece of junk distractedly, setting it back down with a small sigh as he walked around picking things up and setting them back down.  
  
His mother laughed, shaking her head as they walked out of the store with the present Remus had picked out for James, a t-shirt autographed by all of his favourite Quidditch players, by surprise, he had found it on for sale in a store. James was probably going to take off whatever he might be wearing at Christmas and put it on.  
  
"Now Sirius.ah, the clown. Sirius might like anything that explodes, bites, laughs or just does interesting harm to a person. That's just the way it is with him." Remus said and grinned, running a hand through his hair distractedly. "Maybe I should get him.what should I get Sirius, mum?"  
  
Mrs. Lupin looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping her chin while staring at the ground as though in thought, then spoke again, in a rather suggestive tone. "How about we go to the joke shop and pick out a package of things?" she said.  
  
"Right then." Remus said, walking over to the counter to pay for James' shirt. He set it down on the counter and paid for it, put it in a nice box and wrapped it. Outside, he put a charm on it to make all the Quaffle's on it zoom around the gift box. He grinned and he and his mum headed for Gambol and Japes, a joke shop much like Zonko's, only bigger. Much bigger. With more dangerous and fun things for people like Sirius to spend hours over, planning how to use them. Oh well.  
  
"So mum, you know Lily and Jen and Kathy right?" he asked conversationally as he walked with his mum to their destination, which was just a tad away from the little store they had just left. The street was rather busy, with little witches or busy looking people rushing around with bags and wands in their hands, all smiling merrily at the designs being put up by people. It all looked very beautiful, and most people were in a good mood, except for the every few odd ones wearing a dark look as they walked along. Those people did confuse Remus a lot, especially since he had seen one person wearing a black, hooded robe, covering their face.  
  
"Here we are." Mrs. Lupin said as she pushed the door to the joke shop open and stepped inside, her eyes scanning the place with a hint of amusement in them. It was a big, stuffed shop with a watch-your-back feeling to it. There were a lot of things stacked up in shelves, and lots of rows of things, and things on tables and walls, and hanging from the ceiling. The shopkeeper was a young man that reminded Mrs. Lupin of Sirius quite a lot. Remus, though, was busy rushing around the racks with an evil grin on his face, like he was a pro at this place, knew every corner, every turn, every object and what everything did.  
  
"The shop keeper says that they have a new section that's full of new stuff!" Remus told his mum, who was poking at an odd looking toy casually. "Like new muggle jokes.Sirius would love those...since he's never probably seen 'em before.it'll give the idiot something to keep him busy. That would be amusing. Sirius attempting to think!" Remus said, walking over to that section and picking up the stuff, examining it carefully, and setting it back down on the shelf he got it off. After about 15 minutes, Remus had finally decided on what Sirius would be receiving for Christmas. He had picked off a small book.no, not an ordinary book. It was a book full of the most hilarious, pointless muggle jokes ever made. And the book laughed occasionally too.  
  
Another thing he had picked up was a 'thing' called a wopee cushion. On the instructions, it said that you blow it up and put it on some ones seat and when they sit down it makes this huge big farting noise. Sounds like something Sirius would like to use. Last, but not least, Remus got Sirius a good ol' pack of dungbombs.  
  
He had picked up a pack of dungbombs for Peter, a book and a muggle player musical thing called a 'flute', like the shopkeeper called it.  
  
Remus and his mother walked out of the shop packed with even more things. "Now the girls." he said dreadedly. His mother laughed, shaking her head. She knew he was going to do that. "What gender am I?" she asked him, using a joking tone. "Mum.I'm serious...I don't know where girls even shop!"  
  
"Hm. I know Lily loves to read as much as you, from what I've heard, so it's a book for her. Kathy is.the girly one, you say? Okay then I'll pick up something for her out of Madam Malkins.and I think we'll find something unique for Jen I guess since she doesn't really fit under one thing." Mrs.Lupin said, sounding half-certain about what she was talking about since she didn't really know the girls.  
  
Remus shrugged as they stopped at the bookstore and got Lily a book on Charms. Their next stop was...oh no...the...eurgh...Madam Malkins. Horror!!! Or so Remus saw it that way. He hoped he wasn't going to have to stick around in there for too long anyway!  
  
His mum, though, looked quite happy as she stepped in. "I think we'll just get her a nice hat to go with fancy robes, that's it. I saw her wearing one once in her Fourth Year at the station." she started off distractedly as she picked up a satin, deep purple one with a beautiful design all over it in silver string, some very small bright green jewels (studs) along the design going all around the hat. "This is lovely." She decided, an approving smile on her face as she walked over to the counter and paid for it. Well, now there was one more to go, and he was freeeeee. Just Jen left.  
  
Remus sighed slightly, "This has been a long day." he said and yawned as they entered a shop that sold stationary, diaries, quills, different colored ink, and all in all nice looking things. He walked over to a little can with quills in it, and picked up a blood red one. Strangely enough, he thought Jen would like to write with something as slightly odd as that. He smiled and got it for her, then walked over to the ink section. There were all kinds of ink. Ink that changed according to your mood, as in color. There was ink that switched handwriting, and some ink that read your words out loud when you were done writing, all sorts. He picked up the mood- changing one, and then got Jen some fancy parchment and paid for it, then walked out. He and his mum shrunk all the gifts, and apparated back to their house, ready to rest.  
  
[Mrs. Potter and James]  
  
"Mum, I said Kathy was sort of...girly...but hell, I didn't say she was a squeal-squeal girly girl!" he said, backing up as though revolted as his mum held up, slightly uncertainly, the most disgusting yellow bow he had ever seen in his entire life. "And.that thing is just scary, that's all that it is!" he added, sighing with relief as his mum set it back down.  
  
"I was kidding, James!" she said and rolled her eyes, laughing slightly. "Okay then if you're bored then you go on and attempt to get something." She said and smiled, sitting down and staring at her son expectantly and patiently. They were in Madam Malkins store, shopping for the girls. James was bored out of his mind, and he was starting to nag and say no to everything that his mum had picked up. "Okay." He said uneasily and picked up a pale blue scarf, very soft, and with silver glittery snowflakes on it. He smiled and showed it to his mum, a triumphant smile on his face.  
  
"Don't give me that smug look.reminds me of when your dad was in his fifth year.agh..." she said and smiled, shaking her head slightly.  
  
He glared at his mum and then started going through the things there again. After about 10 minutes of looking through scarves, hats and other things that were pretty much scaring him, not to mention boring the hell out of him, he settled for a pink headband, with white snowmen on it.  
  
"Uh.this one?" he asked cluelessly, holding it up for his mum to look. "Okay then.now Lily." She said and put on an innocent, knowing smile that made James cringe.  
  
"I have to go now mum!" he said and sped out of the store, blushing a deep red. He wasn't going to buy Lily a gift from here, he was planning to get her something more special. Well she was the most special thing on Earth to him, and he wanted to get her something meaningful. He already got gifts for Sirius and Remus. He got Remus a pack of dungbombs and other things to use for pranks, and he got Sirius a huge joke book and some pranks.  
  
Now Lily. How hard could it be?  
  
[Sirius]  
  
Sirius apparated in front of the joke shop. "Heaven!" he said and walked in, grinning slightly as he started going through things to get Remus, James and Peter. And he walked out with things to last about three months. He smiled slightly as the happy feeling around him started getting to him, making him in his nearly hyper mood as he looked around, hoping to find any friends. He found Alice Banks and Frank Longbottom sitting at a table at the ice cream store and waved to them, a smirk on his face, to annoy Frank of course.  
  
He knew that Frank adored Alice, and he loved teasing him sometimes. He snickered as Frank glared at him when Alice turned away and walked around Diagon Alley, wondering where to go to get a gift for the girls. "A book is.no...I don't even like that evil book store...and I am NOT going to Madam Malkins, no, not happening." He agreed to himself under his breath.  
  
"SIRIUS, HEY SIRIUS!" a girly, squealy voice called, startling Sirius slightly. He turned around and saw Janette Lanhart, a Ravenclaw Sixth Year...also the schools biggest mouth. Sirius cursed under his breath as the pretty brunette approached. He had dated her one in his Sixth Year...and never regretted anything more in his whole life. The girl did nothing but talk, and twist her hair around her finger as she harped on about useless things.  
  
"Hi Janette." Sirius said in a rather forced tone with a smile to match. "How are you doing?" he asked in a rather too formal tone.  
  
"I am like, so happy!" she said in a normal, happy tone. "I just got invited to Darcy's Christmas party, heh, wanna come? I can get you an invitation if you want because Darcy is like, my really good friend (A/N:*cough*sure*cough*), we're like best friends. Heh. But it's a muggle party, so yeah. So what do you say?" she asked and grinned at him. "But I should tell you - I'm going with one of her muggle friends. I wonder what he looks like, she like totally set us up! She is so nice! You should come, instead of spending Christmas by yourself, you know. It's so useless to just sit there and do nothing. It's like really, really, like I can't describe how boring!"  
  
Sirius blinked, trying to take in all that he just heard in one go. "Uhrm.I'll pass, thanks Jan, I uh...have plans." He said and nodded, shrugging slightly. "Sorry", he said with a smile, in a mock-regretful tone.  
  
"Oh my God! You like, don't wanna come. Oh that's okay. Hehe. I'm telling everyone that I like saw you, this is like so cool we haven't talked in SUCH a long time!" she said and smiled sweetly. When she said 'I'm telling everyone that I like saw you', it meant that the story was going to go on to 'I like saw him and he asked me out, and now were going out and I'm going to a party with him and it's gonna be soo awesome!'.  
  
Sirius glared at her. "Yeah, I haven't talked to you since you told everyone that I only date girls to attempt to get in their pants, and I have never really liked any of the girls that I dated, and that I also paid them all to go out with me." he said coldly, his eyes burning holes in her as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and got the brat look on her face.  
  
"Hmph!" she said and stalked off, her head high in the air. Sirius smirked, and took out his wand, muttering a hex softly and sending it her way. As he walked into a randomness store, he heard a loud scream and began to snigger. It was the good old 'pimple' spell. He looked around the store, which looked like it was only recently opened. He picked up a fancy looking diary, one that was charmed to change colors. That was for Lily. He got Kathy one that was silver, with animated designs on the front, and Jen a blue one that changed styles.from old to modern to girly.  
  
He walked out and decided to walk around in attempt to find one of his friends. After about 15 minutes, though, he returned to his apartment loaded with gifts for his friends.  
  
[The girls]  
  
"I want to go back to your place Jen, I can't anymore! And the gifts are weighing me down." Lily said and grinned slightly, her feet starting to ache. "Can't walk anymooore!"  
  
"Eh...same here. And my hair is starting to get frizzy.not a good sign." Kathy said out of the blue and blinked, her long brown hair blowing in the wind.  
  
"Alright, fine...but next time we come here, we get ice cream." Jen said and grinned. "Because ice cream is good. And good means happy. And happy leads to fun, and fun leads to...happiness...or whatever." She said, poking her friends and apparating back to her house.  
  
Lily blinked and looked at Kathy. "That was strange." She said and they both apparated back to Jens house.  
  
[James]  
  
James stood in a jewelry store, looking quite awkward. He wanted to get Lily a necklace. A locket, to be specific. He walked over to the shopkeeper and asked if they had any lockets for sale.  
  
"Yes we do, but you're lucky, we only have two left." The shopkeeper, a snooty young woman with a strict and formal voice and appearance to her, said. "A silver one and a gold one.would you like to see them?" she asked, raising an arched black eyebrow.  
  
"Er...yeah." he said as she pulled out two lockets. A silver one, that didn't catch James' eye as much as the golden one. He paid for it and walked out, staring at it from the navy blue box it was in. He sighed slightly, as he wondered if Lily would ever be his as he apparated back home, feeling tired and confused. He was disappointed that he hadn't been able to run in to Sirius or meet him. The idea that Sirius was spending Christmas in his ruddy apartment really made James feel bad. He sort of had a little plan forming in his head, and so far, he really liked it. He decided to tell tomorrow.  
  
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeello people! I'm not dead! AAAH! A shocker! I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, so unbelievably sorry that I haven't updated in way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way too long. I feel so damn bad. Writers block sucks so much. I have a lot of things to say. First off, a huge thanks to all of you who e-mailed me, either telling me to update, or sending suggestions, or helping me out with the whole Christmas thing. You don't know how much it meant to me, especially the ones who wrote long letters! I love you all so much ^-^! I feel happy to know that all of you can't wait for the next chapter, but I also feel dreadful for slacking off. Things have been out of hand for me lately. Things are changing, and I have a huge thing coming up for Student Council that we're planning for. What else is that, strangely enough, I'm starting to socialize more. So many parties and events and problems lately.  
  
Not to mention tiring and annoying at times, really. School has also been the optimum horror for me. I feel like shit for not updating so long, I really do. I know all of you are mad at me, and I'm so sorry if you sent me an e-mail and I didn't reply, I'm telling you now, here, that I do feel bad, but you must forgive me since I am the slacker stupid loser that I am and I really will try to get a handle on life sooner or later! Writing is my salvation! And I hate writer's block soo much. I almost cried the other day when I sat there and I couldn't get on with the story. It is so annoying that it drives me crazy.  
  
My friends have all been having problems lately. One of them ran away to my place, but went back to her house a day after, and another one is planning to run away...and then come in my friends and their boy friends with their own problems, and being the one who solves problems at times, I have to take peoples shit but it's okay...it's weird though. So much happening lately. One of my other friends is having problems with her parents while another one is in to self-harming. SAVE ME SOMEONE!  
  
All my thanks, hugs and cookies go out to all of you who review all the time, and e-mail me a lot. (A huge thanks to Megan for the super long e- mail, and to Miriam for all the support, which I am so thankful for, I really am I love you Miriam ^-^! gives cookie. And to all the others who sent me an e-mail or made suggestions about what to add in the story, I love hearing all your idea!)  
  
By the way, this chapter was named Its Hard, because of Jen and her story about her mom, and because Christmas shopping isn't always easy! Heh. I just felt like that title, BELONGED XD, so I put it there because that's just me, if I -feel- XD it should go there, I put it there.  
  
Please, if you have any suggestions, send them in I'm more than happy to read them all! And I will try to fit them in with the story as much as I can, duh! Hehe!  
  
Luv ya -Delilah  
  
P.S IM SO SORRY! :'( I know this chapter is longer than most, but I'm not so sure if its that interesting, please tell me if it is or if it isn't!!! 


	10. Chapter 10: Uprising Surprises

° - Uprising Surprises - °

[The Potter Household – December 23, 1977]

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining brightly, and the breeze was warm. It was a nice day to be outside and enjoy the weather or some time with friends or a special person. It was around 10 o'clock in the morning, and so that meant that there were plenty of hours left for the sun to shine. The sun was shining on the grass and the trees, giving off a beautiful effect, as well as the flowers and the little Greek-style fountain in the Potters backyard. 

James was sitting outside at a table, wondering what all his friends were up to, Sirius to put the finger on it actually. He sighed slightly, leaning back in the chair and putting his hands behind his head as he stared around his rather big garden. 

'I just can't bare the fact that Sirius is spending Christmas by himself while the rest of us are with our family's. More like I don't want that to happen. What can I do?! I can invite him over, sure, but something inside me tells me that I can come up with something better'.

James sighed frustratedly and got up from the chair he was seated in. He started walking around his garden, thinking of what it could be that would save Sirius from spending Christmas by himself. For the next 10 minutes he thought and thought and thought, but not a bell rang. 

'ARGH! I can't think of anything, yet I know that there is something I can do. What could it be that would make Sirius feel happy? I don't want to bring him here because I've already done that…I want to do something else. Maybe a surprise or something...' he thought as he plopped down on the grass, starting at the sky above.

'What would surprise a person like Sirius? Everything? Haha…eh...not funny...back to the point. Think Prongs, think. Gah…I have never felt so stupid before!'

He got up again and went inside, deciding to ask him mum for help. Her suggestions were cheesy sometimes, but a little help might alter some ideas. He pushed open the back door and looked for his mum.

He found her sitting on a couch in the living room, reading the Daily Prophet. He approached her and sat down on a chair facing her, then pulled down the newspaper gently, snickering. "Mum, I need your help!" he said seriously and frowned, slumping in the chair he was sitting in. "Well?" his mum said, raising an eyebrow at her son. He wasn't normally like this, he seemed frustrated, and he looked like he had been doing some thinking lately. There's a first. She grinned slightly.

"I don't want to let Sirius spend Christmas by himself, and I know he would be too stubborn to let himself come here, or to Remus or Peter for that fact. I have a feeling that I can do something about it, yet when I think, nothing. Nothing comes. That is so evil. Thinking, and thinking, and thinking, and then...dun dun dun…nothing!" he said flatly. 

Mrs. Potter couldn't help but laugh as she looked at James messed up his hair and his frustrated rambling. "Why don't you send him a cake or something?" 

He rolled his eyes and sat up, thinking slightly and then his eyes lit up. Mrs. Potter knew what that meant. She smiled slightly and watched as James jumped up from his chair and did a victory dance. "Yeah, yeah, yeah I GOT IT, I GOT IT!" he sang, grinning slightly. "See you mum!" he said and dashed away, running to his room. He slammed the door shut, then sat at his desk and brushed away all the crumpled parchment that was plans for pranks. He grabbed a new sheet of parchment and dipped his quill into his inkbottle, then began to write rapidly, his handwriting messy as usual.

_Dear Remus, Jen, Kathy, Lily and Peter,_

Hi! Haha. How has your holiday been so far? I miss all of you (I know you miss me Lily! :D). My holiday has been fine really, nothing special. Christmas shopping was hectic, Diagon Alley was so crowded. Shame I didn't run in to any of you there. Anyway, that's not the reason of this letter. You all know that Sirius has problems with his family and has to spend Christmas in his apartment, all alone L, right? Well I have an idea, and I will really never annoy you guys anymore if you agree with me and go along with my plan! It's simple, really, nothing hard and it's something I know Sirius will very much appreciate! Alright, I will shut up now and tell you. Hm. Okay. Now. Should I tell you? Of course I should. Okay, no, really, here is my idea:

_I think that all of us should go to his place tomorrow, like at 7! What do you think?! We'll go really quietly, not a sound! And we will all wake him noisily. Hah. I think he would be shocked. I really don't want him to spend Christmas by himself, so how about it you guys?_

_Tomorrow, we can all meet in my garden at 6 AM, then go to his place at 7. I'm serious you guys, not joking,_

_All of you bring your presents and stuff with you, because I think we should also spend the night at his house and then the next day we're all together for Christmas! What do you think? Please, please agree all of you._

_This letter is being passed on to all of you by the order of the names on the list, sorry it's not by favour :P, but this was hurried! If you agree, sign this parchment. Oh and Remus, when you get this, sign it and send it to the girls, I know you're going to sign it. Hah._

_Bye,_

_James! _

_P.S.: I can't wait to see the look on his face…_

James grinned and rolled the parchment together, then walked over to his owl cage.

"Hi Tidus, I have a letter for you to deliver!" he said as he tied the letter to Tidus. "Send this to Remus, won't you? And then take it to the girls, then Peter. If you don't have enough energy after you deliver it to the girls, stay there for a while then send it on to Peter, alright?" he said and smiled, then let him out and watched his black screech owl fly away. He sighed slightly, rolled off the window he was leaning on and went back downstairs and told his parents 'the plan'. His parents thought it was funny, but they were proud of their son for being such a good friend. 

For the next three hours, James jumped around the house reading Quidditch magazines and pigging out, waiting for a reply from Remus. 

While he did that, James started to remember. He started to remember some funny things. And some meaningful things. 

Flashback 

The Marauders First Year, September 2, 1970 

The Hogwarts Express gave a last warning sound, for all those people still hugging their families and friends goodbye. It was noisy on Platform 9 and ¾. All of the people were ushering their children onto the train and handing the trunks to the man who put them somewhere in the train. Amongst all that, you couldn't really hear anything because of all the noise. People crying, laughing, and yelling and shouting. And the sounds of animal cages and owls hooting nosily weren't helping.

_"Bye!" a boy with incredibly messy jet-black hair called to his parents for the last time as he got onto the train, looking around him slightly. He pushed his glasses up his nose and walked around, trying to find a compartment to sit in. He found none that were empty, except one in the end which had only one boy in it. A boy with elegant black hair, dark blue eyes, and a disgruntled look on his face. James peeked his head in the doorway. "Hi." He said and smiled._

_The boy turned his head and looked at James, the friendliness of his tone made him feel that James was a nice person._

_"Hey." He said back, nearly cautiously as he stared at James. The boy's hair was messy. Really messy._

_"Can I sit here? All the other compartments are full." James asked, stepping inside. "Sure." He said and shrugged as James walked in and plopped down on the chair facing him._

_"I'm James Potter!" he said and grinned, holding his hand out to Sirius, who shook it. "Sirius Black." He said quietly, making his last name sound like a horror. James, who was half-noticing that Sirius looked miserable, pointed to the book Sirius was reading. "You like pranks? Well that book seems nice, it's all bout them isn't it?" he asked excitedly and smiled._

_"I love pranks!" Sirius said, his dark blue eyes lighting up happily just at the mention of pranks. He liked this James boy. He seemed nice, and there was something about him that told Sirius that they were going to be friends. "Me too!" he said seriously and nodded. "I was going to set off a dungbomb in the hallway, but I decided not to since there were too many Seventh Year girls giggling and making dumb noises over some boy." He said and rolled his eyes, not knowing that one day when THEY became Seventh Years, he and the boy sitting in front of him were going to be talked about in such a way by other first years. Sirius rolled his eyes in agreement, it was hard to concentrate when girls were giggling, it was annoying._

_"You wanna go set one in a compartment full of girls when the train goes?" Sirius asked and grinned mischievously, forgetting that he was feeling upset because his parents were rambling on about how much they wanted him to be in Slytherin, but they were glaring and lecturing him at the same time, to not talk to just anyone and look for people worthy of his time. _

_"Want to? I would be honored to!" James said and laughed, and he and Sirius went on talking for about another 15 minutes. By then, they had officially named themselves the Marauders, talked about their families, decided that what their parents said and the rules weren't important, and were planning on their first big prank at Hogwarts._

_After all that, came a knock on the door, and a boy with light brown hair poked his head inside the compartment, looking slightly nervous. "Hi…I'm Remus Lupin...can I sit here? The boys I was sitting with were…giving me a hard time." He said and his eyes darted from the boys to the ground._

_Sirius seemed almost reluctant, but James let the boy sit with them. "I'm James Potter...and this is Sirius Black." He said and smiled. _

_"Nice to meet you." Remus said quietly, smiling slightly and wondering if they were going to give him a hard time too. _

_Noticing that Remus was the quite type, James and Sirius quietly went on conversing since they thought Remus didn't want to talk to them. Remus busied himself with a book, and five minutes in to it, he heard the word 'pranks' and looked up. James and Sirius noticed and grinned at him._

_"You like pulling pranks too, right?" Sirius asked._

_"Yeah!" Remus said and smiled._

_"Oh, then you should be in our group of magical mischief makers…the Marauders!" James said in an announcer-tone while Sirius snorted with laughter. "Really?" Remus asked quietly. "Yes." Sirius said and nodded while James shoved a contract under Remus' nose._

_"Sign please." He said and smiled._

_Remus read over it, snorting at some things then signed it. Just then, Sirius filled Remus in that they were planning to set off a dungbomb. "Wait a minute. Remus, didn't you say that some boys were giving you a hard time?" Sirius said, narrowing his eyes with an evil smile. _

_"Yes..." Remus said uneasily. "Where?" James asked with an identical evil smile. Remus told them where the compartment was and all three of them got up, walking over to the compartment with three dungbombs. "You were sitting with Malfoy, Snape, and Rosier?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well no wonder they were giving you a hard time." He said and frowned. _

_"Shhh!" James said as they were all hiding under the window at the door. Sirius steadily opened the door just to let the dungbombs in, and when he did that, Remus, James and Sirius all threw them in and ran back to their compartment, laughing as the sound of the dungbombs setting off and the boys in that compartment yelling sounded all the way across the hall. People were laughing as they looked out of their compartments at the rather smelly soon-to-be Slytherins._

**_End Flashback_**

[The Grisdale Household]

Jen unrolled a letter from around an owl she recognized as James' owl. "Hey, guys, James sent a letter!" she announced as Lily and Kathy showed up on either side of her. "What do you think it is?" Kathy said and blinked as Jen unrolled it. By the time they were done reading, they were all smiling.

"That is so sweet!" Kathy said and grinned. "I never thought James had it in him." Jen said and shrugged as she began to write back. 

"I didn't either, Jen." Lily said quietly. But hadn't she always underestimated James? She sighed slightly, shaking her head slightly as Jen tied the letter back to Tidus and sent him off to Remus.

[The Lupin Household]

"James is mad. I can't believe he actually thought I would say no!" Remus told his dad, rolling his eyes as he scribbled back a reply. Mr. Lupin laughed slightly as he watched his son tie the letter around Tidus and send him off to Peters house.

[The Pettigrew Household]

Peter sighed as he wrote back his reply. He couldn't go because he was on a certain business…

[Around 10 PM]

"YES!" James yelled triumphantly as Tidus showed up with a letter. "Finally!" he said and untied it from the owl, quickly unrolling the parchment, which read:

_Dear James,_

_Of course I will. I'll be there tomorrow at 6 a.m. How could you even think that I would say no, James? :D._

_- Remus_

_Dear James,_

_We will be there at 6 as well! This is really nice of you James, thinking it up and all! I think Sirius is going to be really happy. Jen – WHY SIX A.M., POTTER?! Kathy – We are going to have to carry a lot...hah._

- _Lily, Kathy and Jen_

_P.S. I never knew you would think of something like that James – Lily._

_Dear James,_

_I'm very sorry, as I will not be able to be there. Send Sirius my regards…_

_-Peter_

"YES!" James yelled again, a huge grin on his face. "I knew it!". He smiled slightly as he glanced towards his watch. It was already 10 p.m. Well, if he was going to get up at six tomorrow, he had better go to sleep. And so he did. 

Hello! Sorry this chapter is so short! Heh. The next one is going to be much longer though! I just wanted to have James planning the whole thing in one chapter and them taking action in the next one! Thanks to all of you who reviewed. I notice some of you say that it could improve, or that it's cliché, or that I could change it. Please, please, in your next review, tell me how so is it like that. Why do you think I'm re-writing all the chapters? Heh. I'm improving the story. I need to know what you guys think, since it is what helps me write and make the story! I think my writing is getting better, or the story is getting better or less better? Tell me that in your next review, won't you? Oh and if some of you didn't know, I re-placed the first chapter!

-Delilah 

**__**

**__**


	11. Chapter 11: Siriusly Shocked

[The Next Morning, December 24 – 5:45 AM – Potter Household]

James woke up feeling rather grumpy as he rolled off his bed and fell, what usually happened to him when he was forcing himself to wake up at an early hour, but still with a cheery air to him as he lazily pulled on his clothes. He lumbered down the stairs very quietly, walking across the living room and stepping outside into his back yard, plopping down into a chair tiredly. He ran a hand through his hair as adjusted his glasses, looking around his garden. The sun had risen slightly, but there was still a red-ish tint in the sky as he leaned back in his seat. He was feeling rather excited, yet proud of himself for thinking of a plan to make Sirius feel better. He was his best friend after all, wasn't he?

He knew Remus was going to arrive first, since Remus usually woke up early naturally, not forcedly. His thoughts started straying away to weird things as he awaited the arrival of his friends.

James' thoughts were taken away in about three minutes though, as a loud pop could be heard and Remus was standing in James' backyard with a smile on his face and a sack full of presents in his other hand. 

"Hey James!" he said, apparently in a good mood and sat down in the chair facing James, his light brown hair falling in to his eyes as he squinted slightly through the suns increasingly piercing rays. 

"Hello Remus." James said, nodding his head with a grin. "Knew you would be here first!" he said, chuckling slightly as Remus smiled The two immediately got talking about what Sirius' reaction might be when they woke him up with a bucket of freezing water.

"He nearly killed us last year, remember?" Remus said, laughing slightly. All he remembered was James nearly dieing from laughter while Sirius tackled him to the floor. Remus had enough sense not to remain standing near Sirius out of bed too early. 

**_POP_**_._

Three girls were standing in James backyard. 

Kathy smiled cheerfully and waved. "Hi you guys!" she said and hugged both of them, "we missed you!" she said, holding a sack like Lily and Jen. 

Jen looked grumpy, but she was managing to smile every 20 minutes…**once**. "Hey." She said and smiled, plopping down on the ground in front of the table. "Soo...tired…I hate you Potter..." she joked, shaking her head slightly as she ran a hand through her long blonde hair. 

"Hello James, Remus," Lily said pleasantly as she also hugged both of them as set her sack down on the ground, pulling up a chair next to James. "How has the holiday been for all of you so far?" James asked and smiled. 

"Good," Lily said, tilting her head slightly. 

"Same here." Kathy said. 

Jen snorted in reply. She was too tired to talk. 

Remus nodded, "it's been fine, as usual." He said. 

James stood up. "Okay, let's get down to business." He said and grinned, running a hand through his already messy hair. "Okay, its already 6:10 right now." Lily said, and put her arms on the table, folding them elegantly. James was watching while Remus spoke up. 

"Okay, I think we're all going to apparate to outside the apartment building he lives in, and then we...go inside - very, _very_ quietly of course as Sirius can wake up quickly when people are **sneaking** in." he said and sniggered.

"Right," James said, turning away from his staring-at-Lily-while-she-isn't-looking and looked back at Remus, deciding to continue before someone cleared his or her throat loudly and embarrass him. "And also, we aren't waking him up gently because then he'll think it's a dream…ice cold water should do the trick." He said and sniggered, giving Remus a high-five while the girls laughed slightly. "Lets go people, that means you too, Grisdale!" James barked like a drill-sergeant, also in a joking tone as Jennifer stood up, grumbling slightly and whacking James' arm. 

"On the count of three, all of us are apparating there at the same time. We don't want to attract too much attention, he lives in a muggle area." Remus said seriously. All of them nodded.

"One, two, three!" James said.

Extremely loud **_POP._**

****

[In front of Sirius Building]

**_POP._**

****

Two boys and three girls appeared out of the middle of nowhere, a few feet back from the door that lead into the building. It was a nice, homely looking building. 

James opened the door and walked in, all the others following as they went up the stairs, Jen grumbling slightly, something about having to wake up too damn early. 

"And remember, not a sound." Lily whispered as Remus, as quietly as he could, whispered _'Alohomora'_, and gave his wand a small wave. The door quietly unlocked with a small noise. Remus put his wand back in his pocket as James very slowly pressed down on the handle and silently, deathly opened the door and all of them tiptoed in one by one. 

'E's in his room,' James mouthed, pointing to the way as Remus filled a bucket with ice-cold water and silently walked over to all of them, who were standing in front of the door of his room. Lily very gently and quietly opened the door, and they all walked in, to find Sirius sleep and sound with one arm hanging off the bed. They all held back snorts of laughter as they stood themselves around his bed, and Remus held up the bucker of water. 

"One," Kathy mouthed, "Two," Jen mouthed.

"THREE!" James and Lily yelled loudly together. 

Remus tipped the bucker of ice-cold water over Sirius' head. His eyes flew open as he let out a very startled yelp and shot up straight about three feet. 

"HEY SIRIUS!" all of them yelled at the same time, all standing at the end of his bed, laughing as he wiped the water away from his face and a grin grew on his face as he leaped on all of them. He ended up tackling James, Remus, and Jen to the floor, and they all fell, laughing like mad as Sirius brushed his wet, black hair away from his face.  Lily, who had smartly enough packed the camera with her, took it out and snapped a picture of all of them on the floor, as she had taken a picture of Sirius when the water was tipped over him. 

"What…what are all of you doing here?" Sirius asked, a happy look on his face as he pulled the people he had knocked down off the floor one by one. 

"We decided to come and surprise you, since we didn't want you to spend Christmas by yourself!" Kathy said and smiled, "But it was James." She said and grinned. 

"Yep, it was James idea!" Lily said, smiling at James. "He had thought it up, which must have taken a while," she joked, "and he owled us and asked us if we would. Can't believe he actually thought we wouldn't!" she finished. 

"Yeah!" Jen and Remus said. 

Sirius looked grateful, and slightly awed as he looked to the floor with a smile on his face then back to all of them, "I don't know what to say...I…thanks you guys, that means a lot to me." he said and smiled, as they all hugged him again. This was one of the moments they would all remember for the rest of their lives. 

"So Sirius, why haven't you got any decorations up?" Jen asked as Kathy looked like an idea had just sparked in her head. 

"We should put up some decorations now, then!" Kathy said and smiled and got some loud agreements. Sirius already had a small tree, but they all wanted a big one, so Remus and Jen went off to get one. (A/N: Don't even think about asking me where they got it from, cause I don't know XD.) And while they did that, the others busied themselves with other things.

Kathy was busy hanging those bush-like thingies that look like straps with some things you can hang on to them along everything that had a shape, such as every single table in the house, and the chairs, and everything else. They also had those glowing lights that were all together like you put them up on one net along the walls and everywhere else. They put up a circle thingie that was green on the door, and inside, they had one whole wall covered with all kinds of things that were Christmas-y. 

The more they decorated, the more all of them got in to a more warm and holiday-ish spirit, tossing things around to each other and tiding around the house, putting up red, green or white decorations wherever they could. "Hey, pass me that snowman over there, the one Kathy spent half an hour blowing!" Lily called from where she was standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. Sirius brought it over to her. It was just a medium-sized, cute, blow-up snowman that she set on top of the fridge. It had taken Remus and Jen about two hours to get the tree.

"Oh this place looks wonderful!" Kathy gushed when they were done, just as Remus and Jen walked in, each one holding the medium-sized tree from one end. They all mock-cheered, as though it was the trip of a life time to go get the tree and come back. 

"Why did it take you so long?" James half-joked after they were all done mock-cheering as he and Sirius helped put the tree up straight.

"Argh, it's so empty!" Kathy said, bringing over a box of things to put up on the tree. 

(A/N: I am so sorry I suck at describing Christmas decorations XD)

"Okay then lets start putting things on it!" Lily said and grinned. She was glowing. Literally. She had one of those net things with tiny light bulbs on it on her shirt, and the lightbulbs light was reflecting on her face. She looked so pretty, with the light illuminating her pale face, and making her eyes sparkly. James sort of got distracted, watching her. Everything else seemed to tune out as he watched her, smiling happily and putting things up with everyone. 

"Hey, James!" Sirius called over to him, winking at him with a slight smile. He had been watching him, he knew that James was practically dying for Lily...he knew how long James had been waiting. He knew that James would wait forever if he had to. 

James grinned sheepishly and hung a tiny snowman on the tree, as Lily put an angel up. Kathy put up a little red ball with glitter on it, while Remus put a tiny bell and Jen put up a golden star. They were all talking excitedly and putting things up on the tree, until it was all covered with small things, looking extremely beautiful as Sirius wrapped one of those net things with light bulbs on it around it. If they turned it on at night, which they would, the three was going to look amazing. 

"Wow," Lily said softly, tilting her head slightly as she looked towards the tree rather fondly. They were all standing next to each other, admiring the tree. It was teamwork, that's why the tree was so special. It had a sense of friendship to it. James was standing next to Lily. He looked at her, and as though it wasn't him who had thought of it, put his arm around Lily's shoulders, grinning. 

"It looks amazing, doesn't it?" he asked softly. He loved it when Lily was looking like she was admiring something meaningful. She was so beautiful. He really wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how much he cared about her…

"Yeah..." she said, nearly not noticing James' arm...but she did when she suddenly started feeling warm, as though everything else in the world suddenly didn't matter. She glanced at him. He was staring at the tree with a gleam in his eyes...his hazel eyes, his pretty hazel eyes. The ones she thought were so deep and nice. Kathy softly nudged Jen in the ribs, motioning to Lily and James with her eyes, a slight smile on her lips. Lily's head was slightly tilted, and James had his arm around her, and both of them were staring at the tree.  Quite a cute scene, in many opinions. 

**_SNAP._******

Lily and James jumped slightly as they turned to see that Sirius had taken a picture of them. They were both blushing as they pulled apart, laughing slightly. 

_'THAT WAS SOOO WEIRD…but...it felt nice!' _Lily thought, still blushing slightly as she looked over at James, who was joking around with Sirius about something. She found Kathy and Jen sitting on either side of her, both grinning quite widely as Remus went into the kitchen to get some water. 

"Don't you ever dare deny it, Lily!" Jen said and got up, chucking slightly as Kathy giggled. 

"Lets put the presents under the tree!" Remus said and smiled. 

They all set the presents they got all under the tree. Now it looked even prettier with colorful presents all under. It looked more…_complete._

Jen and Kathy plopped back down on the couch next to Lily, while Remus and James played a game of Exploding Snap. The winner was to play against Sirius.

Kathy and Jen exchanged a knowing look, then turned to Lily. 

"We know." They both said quietly but determinedly, keeping straight faces. 

Lily looked confused. 

"You know what?" she asked. 

"That you like James." Kathy said and grinned. 

Lily opened her mouth, but Jen silenced her with a hand. "It's quite obvious. We caught you staring at him a few minutes ago! Aahaha!" she said and stuck her tongue out. 

"You guys!" Lily said and frowned. "I was only trying to figure something out!" she said, turning away moodily. 

Jen and Kathy rolled their eyes and Lily sighed slightly, leaning back in to the soft couch. _'I don't know if I like him or not...I mean...he is...well...he's James! The guy I hated so much, the guy I would never ever be friends with, the guy I know think is great! Wait, I did not just admit that to myself...ack! I need to think. But why is it that every time he touches me, I get butterflies in my stomach, and I'm constantly staring at him...his eyes...those eyes!' _she thought distractedly. _'There's just something weird going on...me and James are just friends!' _

Lily was snapped out of her thoughts as Jen began laughing at the site of Remus with his eyebrows missing. And for the rest of the morning, it was like that, just plain fooling around and playing games, till it was time for lunch, around 2 o'clock. 

"There's nothing in your fridge except **_junk_**, Sirius!" Kathy said and frowned, pulling Sirius' ear as though he was a little kid. "**Up**." She commanded. 

"There she goes with the mini-mom thing again," Jen whispered to Lily, who grinned slightly. 

"What?" Sirius asked and blinked, trying to pry her hand away from his poor ear. 

"Get up. Move it, we're going shopping right now. You need to learn what's good for you…and what kind of junk to buy anyway!" she said and grinned, as he stood up, grumbling slightly as she nearly kicked his butt out the door. 

Everyone else was laughing of course. 

"Kathy loves cooking…so of course she's planning to make some lovely things for tonight." Lily said and smiled. 

"But whatever you do...don't ask her to make soup. Peh." Jen said, shuddering slightly.

"Shut up Jen!" Lily laughed, "You're the only one who doesn't like her soup!"

"Don't start!" Remus and James said at the same time, not wanting to watch a girl-argument right now. "Sirius is probably dieing right now...Kathy is good at being like her mother!" Lily said and laughed.

[At the Supermarket]

"Yes, get the pasta if you want it." Kathy said and rolled her eyes. 

Sirius had begged her to get the pasta for half an hour. But no, she wouldn't. But after five minutes of puppy dog faces, one had to give in. It was the Christmas spirit getting to her. She grinned slightly and put some sauce to go with the pasta. She had got Sirius quite a big supply of vegetables and fruits, something she didn't find in his fridge, and also some other basic things like cheese, bread, jam, and some other good stuff to pick out on whenever you need it. (A/N: I know. XD. I eat a lot o.o). 

After about an hour, they were done. And there wasn't much junk in there either, much to Sirius' protests. 

"You are so evil." Sirius said, poking her. 

"No I'm not, you're irresponsible." She joked as they paid for the stuff…with some trouble handling the muggle money at the cashier of course.

[Back at The house – Around 4 o'clock]

After they had all finished eating, it was around four, and they were all tired. Some of them decided to take a nap, while the others decided to go for a walk. Kathy fell asleep on the couch and Remus fell asleep in Sirius' room. Sirius and Jen, who were just the right people to put together for a debate, were currently arguing over something that didn't make sense. 

"Feel like going for a walk, Lily?" James asked, yawning slightly with a bored expression on his face as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"Yes, anything is better than watching Jen and Sirius argue over what is better, meat balls or chicken...useless!" she said and rolled her eyes, standing up and following James out. 

It was snowing and they both had scarves on. And heavy jackets. After they were outside the building, they had started down the side of the road silently, breathing in the cold air.

"So James…tell me why you really thought of coming here." Lily asked and smiled, glancing at him. She knew, but she wanted to hear his point.

"Well...eh...you do know that Sirius is my best friend, and he always will be, or at least I hope so.  He has made it clear that he can't stand his family…so he is always at my place, and he's more than welcome, all the time. But this year, he wouldn't come no matter how many times I had asked him to. So he moved in to this apartment, and when I was thinking about it...I don't know...I just couldn't picture Sirius, of all people, spending Christmas by himself. 

"He's a great person, you know, and I'm his best friend, and he doesn't deserve to spend Christmas alone, so I thought that it was almost like a responsibility for me to do something for him, I wanted to." James said and shrugged, a slight smile on his face as he stared ahead at the road while they walked. 

Lily was sort of surprised. She never knew James had an emotional side. She sighed slightly. 

James glanced at her and cracked up slightly, "Never thought I would do such a thing, did you?" he asked.

"Well…not really." She said and laughed slightly as she brushed her red hair away from her face. "But there's something I think you should know, James." She said. "I have always underestimated you, never gave you a chance to prove that you aren't just an arrogant, bullying toerag...I know that I've hurt your feelings more than once...and I still cant believe I slapped you. More than that is, it was almost like you drove me crazy, but then, as we got older, and things started getting more serious, the picture getting clearer, I started to realize that...it wasn't your fault all along. It was mine. It was almost like I came in to the Wizarding World attempting to, and determined to make myself stand out." She said, and took a deep breath staring ahead of her.

"I...I wanted everything to be perfect, since everything in the muggle world for me wasn't, I was just so new to everything here, and I wanted to be great. I didn't want anything in my way, I was afraid of not being able to fit in, or not being able to do good at school work, everything freaked me out. But then I started realizing that everything wasn't perfect for everyone, it didn't have to be. And all I wanted to say to you is that I'm sorry, and you have every right to be mad at me…" she finished.

James was so shocked. He had stopped walking, and he was staring at her. Where did all of that she just said come from? He could not believe his ears. She had just admitted that it was her fault and not his? But he didn't know if that was entirely true, or not. But he didn't care. He would love Lily no matter what. 

"Lily, it is not entirely your fault, I was way too stupid for my own good at one point, but I changed, and so have you, we both changed. We've forgiven each other. Things are different Lily...there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world right now. You have to know that. There are worse things coming, for everyone." He said.

She nodded. This was so awkward. But she was so glad she had James for a friend. She hugged him, "Thanks James…" she said. He hugged her back, and both of them felt warm again. "No problem." He said as they pulled away. 

"Anyway…" Lily said as they walked down the road. "We should be heading back now before Jen and Sirius destroy each other, don't you think?" she said and smiled.

"Yeah!" he said and laughed, the awkwardness of the situation only a few moments ago slowly leaking away as they raced each other back to the apartment, on James' demand and childishness, of course.

[Cooking Dinner – Kathy – James – Lily]

"Give me the salt, wont you?" Kathy said while she stirred the soup on the oven, and the salt was passed to her from James, who was helping out in the kitchen since Jen and Sirius were playing Wizard Chess and Remus was helping Jen cheat while Sirius complained. 

"You always win, Sirius!" Jen said and stuck her tongue out. "So it's okay if he helps me! Haha!" 

"Shut up you stupid shit." Sirius said and poked her. She laughed in his face even more to annoy him. Remus rolled his eyes exasperatedly. 

Lily was making a cake, because she felt like it. Sirius had put the cake mix in the basket while Kathy wasn't looking, lucky for all of them. It was a chocolate cake. Lily put the cake in the oven after she was done, and set it for 30 minutes. 

James was cutting up the vegetables for a salad, since the girls feared he might burn the kitchen if told to make anything else. 

Kathy was de-frosting the chicken she had gotten from the supermarket. Who said you couldn't just buy the ready-made chicken and all you had to do was lazily de-frost it?

At the moment, Kathy was also making spaghetti, because Sirius had threatened to shave off her eyebrows while she was sleeping if she didn't. She did not want that to happen. No sir. She had made chicken soup, mash potatoes and rice so far. All of that stuff was easy to make, but she was complaining to Lily about getting the cake out of the oven so she could de-frost the chicken, which was on the typical silver plate, and it had vegetables all around it. 

"Alright Kathy, just give it another ten minutes!" Lily said and frowned, also helping cut up the vegetables for the salad. 

"James you mix this. And do not put in too much vinegar, or else…!" she said and laughed as he put all the vegetables in the bowl and mixed it, very carefully applying the vinegar. 

"See I didn't mess it up!" he said proudly, as though the salad was the most amazing thing on Earth and in the kitchen right now. "I didn't mess it up because I'm the bomb!" he said and danced around the kitchen, making stupid faces. Lily laughed slightly and Kathy joined him for a while. 

"Are you going to be done soon?" Sirius whined. Very like him to do that when it came to food.

"Yes, they will be, little pig, don't you worry now. It's beyond me, Sirius, that you eat more than all of us, yet you're not fat...oh well..." Jen said and shrugged, tilting her head slightly but going back to the game. 

"I WIN!" Jen said cheerfully as she took Sirius' king and he grumbled, pouting like a small child while she jumped up. "YEAH! I won I won I won, haha!" she said and high-fived Remus. 

[10 Minutes Later XD]

Lily took out the chocolate cake, which smelled great, and put it on a nice-looking platter with a cover over it. Kathy then put the chicken in the oven. It had to be in there for around 40 minutes.  

"What do we do for 40 minutes?" James mused out loud, and Lily shrugged, twisting a strand of red hair around a slim finger. 

"I don't know." Kathy said and shrugged, glancing at the oven every now and then, like the chicken was going to run away.

"Don't you worry Kathy, if the chicken decides to develop feet and run away, I will catch it." Sirius joked and everyone else laughed, even Kathy, but she was a little red. "Be quiet!" she said and pouted.

Lily was on the couch on her back, her legs hanging off the edge while she stared at the ceiling. Jen was leaning on the couch, her legs crossed. James and Sirius were joking around like little kids, and Remus and Kathy were talking quietly in the kitchen. 

"Oh yeah, well…yeah!" Sirius said, attempting to say something back to James, they were arguing over something.  "Whoa," James said slowly, "I think I just got a bit dumber listening to that!" 

Everyone cracked up as Sirius hit James playfully.

**_______________________________________________________________________**

**I is so sorry I have not updated for so long. I know that I have been absoloutly selfish and lazy and unfair. *ducks tomatoes* But I have been having a real hard time lately. Yups. Ever since it became 2004, my life turned upside down. Everything became bad, everything changed and I hate it when my life went from good to bad. I miss '03, the best year of my life so far. But I cant keep on crying over it, can I? I want to but I cant. My life began to having meaning that year. I learned to write properly that year, I learned to deal with things properly that year, I learned that James Potter existed that year. I knew who my true friends were that year. Then this fucking year took its place and I have only one person in my life who is my best friend, and my reflection, just prettier and taller XD. These past months have been a living hell for me through family problems, personal problems, school and my friends. **

**I have been trying to sort my ass out lately and stop being a misreable mut and its working, slightly. I sure do as hell miss that year and whenever I am having a real bad time, pissed off somewhere on my own, I remember the times, and I cry. Makes me feel better knowing that at one, point, my life wasnt as silly as it is now. Hm. Thats part of the reason it took me so long to update. The other is that during '03, near the end, I decided I wanted to stop writing this story. I lost all hope, everything for this story because I was so misreable. Then earlier this week I started thinking, and I realised that this story is a part of me and I cant just forget it like it never happened or mattered. And its part of the good and meaningul things in '03. So I will continue.**

**I noticed that at some points I got spaced away from the plot, but worry you shalt not, because this stories plot will be fully back soon enough! I thank all my faithful readers who put up with me adn my faithful and lovely and awesome bete-reader. **

**I HAVE A NEW STORY! PLEASE, PLEASE, CHECK IT OUT AND REVIEW IT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! PLEASE PLEAS PLEASE! **

**Its different than this one, more dramatic and all. Different theme.**

**Love you all,**

**Delilah**


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